PR Newswire/Les Echos/
- Press release -
Acquisition of AgoraBiz.com
SeLoger.com invests in the office and commercial real estate market
Paris, 16 September 2008 - SeLoger.com, France's leading player in online real
estate services, has acquired AgoraBiz.com.
AgoraBiz is a marketplace providing two ranges of services for real estate
professionals and those involved in the buy-out/buy-in market:
- an online portal, on which classified ads can be displayed for:
- sale or letting of small and midsize offices;
- storefronts (property and/or business assets);
- businesses for sale (SMEs and VSEs);
- an Experts' Club, providing a meeting place for all those involved in the buy-
out/buy-in market.
Leader in the French online real estate market in terms of audience and number
of classified ads, the SeLoger.com group plans to expand its presence in high-
growth market niches, in order to capitalise on its expertise in online
marketing and traffic generation around the real estate theme. At present, 6,
000 real estate agent clients already publish at least one 'office and
commercial real estate' advertisement, representing a total volume of 35,000
advertisements for the sale of business assets or premises.
The www.agorabiz.com website, launched in 2005, has 31,000 advertisements. It
benefits from a unique position in its segment, combining all products of
interest to professionals and those interested in buying a business: business
assets, business premises, offices, companies (SMEs and VSEs). The company has
also created an Experts' Club which brings together all professionals involved
in the business buy-out/buy-
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in market: specialist real estate agents, agents for the sale of business assets
, lawyers, notaries, business buy-out/buy-in advisors and accountants. Lastly,
it offers extensive editorial content, primarily concerning legal issues.
SeLoger.com aims to promote AgoraBiz.com as the marketplace of choice for
office and commercial real estate. This will be done by combining SeLoger.com's
areas of expertise in the internet - such as online marketing, search engine
optimisation and content syndication - in order to give the website a larger
audience, as well as technical resources, providing clients with an automated
gateway for uploading advertisements.
By linking its 'office and commercial real estate' advertisements to those of
AgoraBiz, the SeLoger.com group will be market leader in the small and midsize
segment, in which the leading commercial real estate operators have a limited
presence. In terms of volume, the new offering has more than 60,000
advertisements and offers the widest range of properties on the market,
comprising offices for sale or to let, business assets, business premises and
business buy-outs and buy-ins (SMEs and VSEs).
This deal fits in with the group's strategy of selective acquisitions and
enables it to create value from its expertise in a new niche area of the real
estate market.
Financial details
The revenues of AgoraBiz.com's website were based primarily on membership fees
for the Experts' Club. They are insignificant at present.
The acquisition will be financed by the cash resources available to SeLoger.com.
Commenting on this acquisition, Jean-Fabrice Mathieu, CEO, noted: 'By linking
AgoraBiz.com to SeLoger.com's existing 'office and commercial real estate'
advertising base, we are creating the leader in this market segment. Our
strategy is based on the vertical development of our offering through more
refined segmentation of our acquisition targets, thereby increasing
monetisation of our website traffic. The current success of our website for
real estate developers (new-build market) and the initial positive effects of
the merger with the Belles Demeures group (prestige real estate market) show
that our offering fits in with the demands of the real estate professionals
market'.
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About SeLoger.com
The SeLoger.com group is France's leading online real estate player, with
websites and services aimed at internet users and real estate professionals.
It has become France's benchmark online marketplace for real estate classified
ads with its two leading sites www.seloger.com and www.immostreet.com.
The group gives internet users access to France's most extensive range of
classified real estate ads, with more than 2.3 million ads. It also gives real
estate professionals the largest platform in the market, with an audience
consisting of more than 2.4 million unique visitors (source: Mediametrie//
Netratings July 2008) and an exclusive distribution network.
SeLoger.com's business model is based on a range of services based around
online classified real estate ads. The company plans to maintain its rapid
growth strategy, which focuses on four main areas:
- continuing to win new estate agent customers, in both Paris and the Regions;
- improving its range of products and services for real estate professionals;
- introducing innovative new services for individuals planning a real estate
transaction;
- making selective acquisitions.
SeLoger.com has been listed on Euronext Paris (compartment B) since 30 November
2006 and is part of the following indexes: SBF 250, CAC SMALL 90, CAT IT and
Euronext 100.
ISIN code: FR0010294595
Contacts
Seloger.com www.groupe-seloger.com
+33 1 53 38 29 00
Laurence Bégonin Maury
[email protected]
Karine Reffet
[email protected]
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