Schibsted strengthens its position in the rapidly growing Brazilian online classifieds site OLX.com.br by increasing the ownership from 25 to 50 percent. Additionally, Schibsted increases its ownership from 50 to 100 percent in the market leader in Chile, Yapo.cl, and creates a strong online classifieds cluster in Latin America with leading positions in 5 countries in the region. The change is a consequence of Schibsted taking over Telenor’s share of SnT Classifeds.
OLX Brazil is the by far biggest online classifieds site in Brazil, with 6.3 million daily active users[1]. This represents a daily reach of 5 percent in Brazil.
“I am very happy to announce that Schibsted is increasing its exposure to one of the greatest successes in online classifieds in emerging markets, OLX Brazil. The underlying development is very strong, we are excited about the further prospects for strong growth both here and in Chile,” CEO of Schibsted Rolv Erik Ryssdal says.
“It makes strong strategic and financial logic sense for Schibsted to increase our stakes in Brazil and Chile, and at the same time exit some Asian markets. We now have a cluster of very interesting market leading online classifieds sites not only in Brazil and Chile, but also in Mexico, Colombia and the Dominican Republic. In total, our footprint covers a LatAm population of 400 million,” Gianpaolo Santorsola, EVP Emerging Markets says.
OLX Brazil possesses an undisputed leadership position in generalist classifieds. It also has a clear market leadership in cars, with seven times more cars on the site than number two in the market, including private cars. Also in the professional market, OLX Brazil is number one measured by ads volumes[2].
In the real estate vertical, OLX Brazil is number one measured by traffic[3], and a clear leader in the private market measured by number of listings. In the professional real estate market, OLX Brazil is a strong challenger[4].
Revenues of OLX Brazil reached BRL 99 million in 2016, which represented a growth of 120 percent compared to 2015. During 2016, OLX Brazil successfully introduced monetization of the professional content in both cars and real estate. The growth momentum is strong, and in Q1 2017, the revenue growth rate accelerated further. Continued high growth is expected.
In Chile, Yapo holds strong positions in both the cars and real estate verticals based on traffic, brand and content and is well positioned to take market shares and increase revenues going forward.
The transaction implies that Schibsted takes over Telenor’s 50 percent of SnT Classifieds, which in its turn controls 50 percent of OLX Brazil and 100 percent of Yapo in Chile. At the same time, Telenor takes over Schibsted’s 33.3 percent and Singapore Press Holdings’ 33.3 percent of 701 Search, the company that controls 100 percent of Mudah in Malaysia, Cho Tot in Vietnam, in addition to operations in Myanmar. Schibsted has been a partner with SPH in Asia since 2006, and with Telenor in Asia and LatAm since 2013. The cooperation continues at a smaller scale in selected Asian markets.
“I would like to thank SPH and Telenor for the cooperation in SnT and 701 Search over these years. The development in our operations has been good, and together we have created great value for our users, our customers and for our shareholders,” CEO Rolv Erik Ryssdal says.
As a result of the difference in valuation between the assets in Asia and LatAm, Schibsted will make a cash payment of USD 400 million to Telenor. Schibsted will finance the amount with debt, and has available funding.
Contact persons investors and analysts:
Trond Berger, CFO. Tel: +47 916 86 695
Jo Christian Steigedal, Head of IR. Tel: +47 415 08 733
Contact person media:
Anders Rikter, Director of Communications Tel: +47 920 84 996
Oslo, 11 May 2017
SCHIBSTED ASA
Jo Christian Steigedal
Head of IR
[1] Source: OLX/Google Analytics (web), Fabric (apps)
[2] Source: Autobiz April 2017
[3] Source: Comscore
[4] Source: Autobiz