More Big Expansion News from EMPG

Emerging Markets Property Group has today announced that it has acquired Lamudi Global for an undisclosed sum. The move further strengthens EMPG’s position in South East Asia after the groups acquisition of Thai marketplace site Kaidee in February.

Today’s announcement is big news in terms of portal consolidation. EMPG already owned and operated Bayut in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Jordan, Zameen in Pakistan, Bproperty.com in Bangladesh, and Mubawab in Morocco and Tunisia, alongside Kaidee. Since the merger deal with OLX announced at the end of April it also owns and operates Dubizzle in the UAE, OLX Pakistan, OLX Egypt and OLX Lebanon, in addition to several other OLX platforms in the GCC.

With the addition to this already impressive list of Lamudi’s sites in The Philippines, Indonesia and Mexico, EMPG has set itself up to dominate in these markets for years to come.

The acquisition of Lamudi Global is perhaps not such a surprise given that the Rocket Internet subsidiary already sold its Middle East, Pakistan and Bangladesh interests to EMPG last year. EMPG has been upfront in stating a desire to expand into other markets with CEO, Imran Ali Khan, on record as saying that the group wished to use capital raised in February 2019 to expand the business. 

South-East Asia was always an attractive target for the Dubai based business, with Khan describing the region in today’s press release as “a bustling, happening market with tremendous potential”.

Mergers and acquisitions of this size always seem like big news, but with the acquisition of Lamudi Global by EMPG the consolidation of portal interests across emerging markets takes another very big step forwards.