News Corp, the global, diversified media and information services company, has raised its stake in the Singapore-based Elara Technologies Pte, the parent company of India's leading digital real estate marketing and transactions services provider PropTiger.com.
The terms of the transaction, which increased News Corp's stake in Elara to about 30 percent, were not disclosed.
News Corp first acquired a 25 percent stake in Elara in November last year for an announced valued of USD 30 million.
PropTiger has since acquired digital design start up Out of Box Interaction (OoBI) as well as adding property search portal Makaan.com to its industry-leading portfolio of offerings and capabilities.
"We strongly believe the combination of PropTiger.com and Makaan.com is best poised to be the dominant digital real-estate platform in India for years to come," said Raju Narisetti, senior vice president (strategy) for News Corp, who also chairs Elara's Singapore-based board.
"While India's real estate sector continues to work its way through challenging macro conditions, we remain very optimistic, not only about India's long-term potential, but also about the management team of PropTiger in its ability to execute, rationally and deliberately," he added.
The other major shareholders in Elara, SAIF Partners and Accel Partners, which had increased their shareholdings as part of the original News Corp investment, remain key backers of PropTiger.
"News Corp's increased stake is a validation of PropTiger's strategy to win a growing share of the digital real estate market in India through our unique service offerings and an end user experience that is second to none. We continue to leverage and benefit from News Corp's global expertise in real estate markets," said Dhruv Agarwala, the co-founder of PropTiger.com, while commenting on the development.
News Corp owns a 62 percent stake in REA Group, which is the operator of Australia's leading property website, realestate.com.au. It also owns Move Inc., which operates realtor.com®, the most up-to-date and accurate for-sale listings of any digital real estate company in the US.
It also recently incubated MansionGlobal.com, a global luxury real estate website housed at Dow Jones & Company.
News Corp is a global, diversified media and information services company focused on creating and distributing authoritative and engaging content to consumers throughout the world.
Headquartered in New York, the activities of News Corp is conducted primarily in the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom.
PropTiger.com leverages the power of technology and data to make the home buying experience rewarding and easy-to-use. It guides customers through the entire process of buying a home, including search, property identification, price negotiation, documentation, home loan facilitation and post sales services. PropTiger.com has also pioneered multiple technology and data driven innovations in the Indian market such as Property Portfolio, Livability and Safety Scores, Resale Price Estimates and detailed Micro-Market Trends and Analyses.
