My CEO Life

A couple of weeks ago, i wrote the first in a series of articles on going global.  In the first article, titled Going Global – Organic Growth Case Study, i talked about how the REA Group organically entered New Zealand through the establishment of a new site from scratch. The next step is to now look at acquisition based entry to new markets.   

Over the last 2 years, the REA Group has acquired 15 different businesses.  These acquisitions split broadly into capability enhancement, consolidation of existing markets and the entry into new markets.  The acquisitions that were entries to a new market include propertyfinder.com, casa.it, the atHome Group, propertyfinder.ae (UAE), and squarefoot.com.hk.  The first acquisition based entry to a new market was the purchase of propertyfinder.com in the UK. 

The initial experiments with moving into New Zealand demonstrated that there was the chance of creating value in these new markets.  However we also realised that organic entry was really only appropriate where we had an asset that we could leverage (e.g. the traffic to the Australian site) or where the market structure was early stage.  (See Analysis – Four Types of Property Portal Markets on our sister site – www.propertyportalwatch.com)

Therefore we identified that the next step in overseas expansion would have to be through acquisition and that due to the uncertainty associated with early stage markets, we focused on the maturing markets.  

When we did a high level scan of maturing markets, it was clear that the UK was the most attractive.  Firstly,
it had a similar agency structure to Australia, secondly it had a similar property portal market with sites operating the same way as in Australia, and finally, we were able to operate seamlessly in the market as there was some experience in operating a business in the UK and of course language was not a problem.

The next step was to identify the potential targets in the UK and this was a relatively simple task – we just looked on the net.  Research showed that the major players were rightmove.co.uk, findaproperty.co.uk, primelocation.com, propertyfinder.com, and fish4homes.co.uk.  We sent each of them an email and set up meetings over the course of a week.  During the course of these meetings, it became apparent that the UK property portal market was very similar to the Australian market and in some ways, a couple of years behind in development.  It also became apparent that propertyfinder.com could be purchased as it was majority owned by a UK VC fund and they were considering exiting the business.

At this point we decided to bring in News International as a partner on the deal as to help reduce the risk and to gain the support of a local media company.  Having negotiated a deal with News International we then negotiated the rest of the deal with propertyfinder.com and conducted due diligence.  Our preferred method here was to have local consultants do the legal, financial and tax due diligence while a dedicated internal team does the technical and operational due diligence.  It was through this approach that the REA Group acquired 50% of Propertyfinder.com (with News International acquiring the other 50%) and the business was integrated into the REA Group.

Once we had acquired propertyfinder.com and focused on building out the business, we then started to have new opportunities pitched to us.  We therefore became aware of casa.it and the atHome Group based out of Luxembourg.  Both of these were analysed based on their market potential and the value that the REA Group could bring to them.  Both turned out to be good acquisitions for the Group with casa.it being the market leader in Italy and the atHome Group delivering strong profit growth.  There were other site referred to us however they didnt fit our expansion criteria and we walked away from them.

Following the acquisitions in Europe, we started to think about emerging markets and what we do there.  In the property portal game, emerging markets are about longer term investments and that means understanding where the basics are strong, investing in a business in that market, and then watching very closely.  We took this approach with the United Arab Emirates and with Hong Kong.  In both cases we identified targets and then took equity stakes in them.  In the case of the UAE, the REA Group now owns 51% of this with the founder working an earn out while in Hong Kong, the REA Group has now acquired 100% of that business.

In going global through acqusition, the key lessons we learned were:

• Select your markets carefully however nothing is better than spending the time in the market
• When you have selected your target move quickly and negotiate with purpose
• Conducting of due diligence will require time and effort and you need to have a dedicated team to do this – one that does not impact the current day to day operations.
• Partnering is an acceptable way to reduce risk but you need to select your partners carefully (more about this in a separate posting)
• Once you have acquired a business you need to move fast on integration and you also need to have a dedicated team to oversea this.

1. Going Global – Organic Growth Case Study

   During my time as CEO of the REA Group, we grew the business from a small operation based out of Melbourne, Australia with 25 people to a global business, operating in 11 countries and 720+ employess. One of the most...

2. A Big Thank You to the European Teams of the REA Group

   Over the last week I have had the pleasure of visiting the REA Group teams in the UK, Luxembourg and Italy. The purpose of these visits was to see the teams and properly say goodbye to them. When i left...

3. Launching Property Portal Watch (in Beta of course :))

   I have been very busy since leaving the REA Group (realestate.com.au) a few weeks ago. One of the things that i have been working on is the launch of Property Portal Watch. This site is designed to provide readers with...

4. What a Week – Moving on from the REA Group

   Well all good things must come to an end.  Last week I was fired from the CEO position at the REA Group.  Now this was and was not a surprise.  The Board and i have had differences for a while and they...

5. The Era’s of Growth of the REA Group

   The company i run is called the REA Group.   The business was started in 1995 in the garage of one of the founders in the Melbourne suburb of Doncaster.  In 2000 it came within a few weeks of closing and...