By
Biswarup Gooptu, ET Bureau
NEW
DELHI: People Group, which owns and operates real estate portal Makaan.com, has
entered into talks with potential buyers, to sell the venture, at a time when
the country's online property space is being seen as the next battleground for
global risk capital and strategic investors.
MagicBricks. com and online web
and mobile classifieds company Quikr are among those believed to have held
early-stage discussions with the promoters of Makaan.com, according to two sources
with direct knowledge of the development.
A
potential transaction could see promoters of Mumbai-based venture, either
outright sell its entire stake, or enter into a joint venture with a new
backer, which could see the promoters divest up to 50% of their ownership, and
which will also have a long-term payout component built into the agreement.
Anupam
Mittal, the founder and promoter of People Group, declined to speak on the
developments, while emails sent to Magic-Bricks.com and Quikr did not receive
any responses at the time of writing the story.
Separately,
Info Edge, which owns real estate portal 99Acres, and was speculated to be in
talks with promoters of Makaan, denied they were looking to pick up a stake in
the venture. Info Edge, which owns a clutch of Internet properties, had raised
Rs 750 crore through a qualified institutional placement in September.
According
to some reports, Info EdgeBSE -0.25 % planned to use the proceeds for potential
acquisitions for 99Acres. Mittal, who owns about 80% of the property website,
runs a slew of internet properties, such as matrimonial website Shaadi.com and
mobile media company Mauj.com.
The
People Group is backed by risk capital investors, such as Sequoia Capital,
Saama Capital, Intel Capital and Citibank.
India's
online real estate has been attracting substantial attention from risk capital
investors, drawn by the massive demand for housing, combined with increased
internet penetration, especially on the mobile platform.
"They're
now the primary source of visibility for consumers and have become default
search parameters. This is only going to get bigger, especially in a country
the size of India," said Anuj Puri, chairman and country head for realty
services consultancy JLL India.
Source: News Published at the Economic Times
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