AUSTRALIA-BASED Digital Classifieds Group (DCG) has acquired the assets of online property marketplace Lamudi in the Philippines and Indonesia to partly sustain its growth.
In a statement on Thursday, DCG said it had acquired Lamudi assets from dubizzle Group, formerly known as EMPG. The recent deal came after DCG acquired Bangladeshi property portal Bproperty in January.
DCG claims that the recent acquisition makes it the second-largest property portal operator in Asia.
“This is an exciting time for Lamudi. We see a lot of opportunities to improve the Philippine real estate market, and with the support of DCG Group, Lamudi will continue to strengthen its market leadership,” Lamudi Philippines Country Head Anurag Verma said.
“By providing an easy-to-use and secure platform for property transactions, we build towards our goal of making the property buying journey easy, trustworthy, and convenient for Filipinos, thereby creating value for partners,” he added.
After the acquisition, DCG now operates leading real estate portals in five Asian markets: Indonesia, the Philippines, Bangladesh, Cambodia, and Papua New Guinea. The group also now has a global workforce comprising over 900 staff members.
“Lamudi, under the stewardship of the dubizzle Group and the management team, have created dominant classifieds and transactional property marketplaces in two of Asia’s most exciting markets: Indonesia and the Philippines,” DCG Group Chief Executive Officer Mathew Care said.
“Our vision is to build a market-leading classifieds group in Southeast Asia, a region of incredible opportunities and this acquisition is a catalyst to delivering this vision. I am incredibly excited to enter these markets and welcome the Lamudi team to the DCG family,” he added.
Founded in 2013, Lamudi has since shifted to a transaction-based business from its initial focus on building dominant property classifieds in frontier markets.
“DCG and Lamudi have shared a similar vision for many years; to provide the best and most trusted platform to transact property in their respective markets. Both companies have delivered on this promise, and I’m confident that Lamudi will continue to achieve new highs under DCG. This is an exciting new chapter for Lamudi and our staff,” Lamudi Chief Executive Officer and Founder Kian Moini said. — Revin Mikhael D. Ochave