Daily Mail offers to buy property website primelocation.com |
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Thu, 08 Dec 2005 14:05
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LONDON: Media group Daily Mail & General Trust Plc. has made a cash offer to buy a Fastcrop Plc., which owns the residential property website, primelocation.com. The company said it has recommended 72.78 pence for a share of Fastcrop, valuing the company at 48 million pounds.
The website is popular among estate agents, who can advertise properties on sale. The site also has a listing of properties available abroad. There are some 500 real estate agents who regularly make use of the website.
Daily Mirror said it had received irrevocable commitments from 75 per cent of Fastcrop shareholders to accept the offer.
Andrew Hart, Daily Mail's managing director of associated new ventures, said the acquisition is part of the company's strategy to increase its exposure to key areas of the online advertising market.
Daily Mail had already bought a rival property website, FindAProperty. It is significant that it had announced recently about its proposal to sell its regional newspaper division, Northcliffe.
Daily Mail had reported last week an 8 per cent increase in its annual pre-tax profit before amortisation and impairment of intangible assets and exceptional items at 253.4 million pounds.
Primelocation was launched in 2001 with an 11 million-pound investment from a consortium of about 200 estate agents, including Hamptons and Savills.
There are some 2,000 offices registered with primelocation.com. It had revenues for nine months ended of approximately 4.1 million pounds, compared with 4.7 million for the whole of 2004, while it had a 500,000 million-pound profit in 2004.
Fastcrop's chief executive Ian Springett said under Daily Mail Fastcrop will have access to greater financial resources to invest for the combined growth of the business.
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