Apax Partners' Funds and General Atlantic agree to acquire a significant interest in China's largest online real estate portal - SouFun
20 September 2010
New York/London/Beijing, 20 September 2010 - Funds advised by
Apax Partners (Apax) announced that, together with General Atlantic
(GA), they have each agreed to acquire a 19% stake in SouFun, the
largest online real estate portal in China. Both Apax and GA have
invested US$163m to acquire the shares at the IPO price from
Telstra, the selling shareholder. Trading in SouFun shares on the
New York Stock Exchange began on Friday, September 17th, after the
opening bell on the NYSE.
Founded in 1999, SouFun is the leading online real estate website
in China, and one of the country's fastest-growing companies. The
company currently maintains 63 offices across China to focus on
local market needs with content coverage in 106 cities. SouFun has
over 139,000 listings for new residential property complexes,
approximately eight million listings of secondary and rental
residential properties, and over 140,000 listings of commercial
properties for sale and lease. In addition, the company provides
over 8,000 brands and one million listings from home furnishing and
improvement vendors across China.
Vincent Mo, Founder and Chairman of SouFun, commented: "We are very
happy that SouFun has become a NYSE-listed company and, in a
concurrent process, received the investments from Apax Partners and
General Atlantic, two of the world's leading private equity funds.
Both Apax and GA are experienced investors in the online space.
Their expertise and network will contribute to the continued
success of SouFun as China's leading pure-play online real estate
portal. The management is deeply committed to delivering strong
shareholder value to all shareholders."
Richard Zhang, Partner & Head of Greater China at Apax
Partners, said: "We are honoured to partner with SouFun and its
founder Mr Vincent Mo to take this market leading business to the
next stage of its development. We were able to identify and
complete this investment thanks to our global media sector
expertise and our local Chinese presence.
Apax is deeply committed to China and believes strongly in its long
term growth potential. Our fundamental mission in China is to
identify, back, and support successful Chinese businesses and help
develop them into true national, and global, champions. Mr. Vincent
Mo is an extraordinarily talented and driven leader who has built
SouFun into a very exciting business, serving hundreds of millions
of Chinese citizens in their quest for a better home and a better
life."
Tom Hall, Partner and co-Head of the Apax Global Media Team, who
will join the board of SouFun, commented: "Within the media team,
we have had a clear focus on strong online businesses, particularly
online classifieds, for some time. The growth in online usage and
advertising we see in every market is in the case of SouFun
combined with the opportunity to invest in a market-leading
business that benefits from the continued urbanisation of China,
and the consequent growth in the Chinese real estate market. We are
delighted, also, to have the opportunity of partnering with the
highly-talented entrepreneur who has created the business, Mr
Vincent Mo, the company's Chairman."
Media is one of the five sectors on which Apax Partners focuses. In
the last 15 years, the Media team has advised Apax Funds on the
investment of over €3.4bn of equity. Key investments include Trader
Media Group, owner of Autotrader, the UK's market-leading
automotive online classifieds business; Bankrate, the leading
online consumer finance portal in the US; Cengage Learning, a
global leader in educational publishing, learning solutions and
library reference materials; and Emap, a market-leading publisher
of information to professional communities.
Credit Suisse acted as financial adviser to Apax Partners.
About Apax Partners
Apax Partners is one of the world's leading private equity
investment groups. It operates across the United States, Europe and
Asia and has more than 30 years of investing experience. Funds
under the advice and management of Apax Partners globally total
approximately $40 billion. These Funds provide long-term equity
financing to build and strengthen world-class companies. Apax
Partners Funds invest in companies across its global sectors of
Retail & Consumer, Tech & Telecom, Media, Healthcare and
Financial & Business Services. For more information visit:
www.apax.com
For further information, please contact:
Ben Harding
Tel: +44 (0)20 7872 6401
Email: ben.harding@apax.com