Proptiger sacks 200 to integrate ops, post Housing.com merger

NEW DELHI: The News Corp-backed realty portal Proptiger.com, which recently merged Housing.com with itself, has handed pink slips to close to 200 employees as part of the restructuring exercise to ensure "optimal utilisation" of resources in the combined entity.

Elara Technologies Pte, which now owns Housing.com, Proptiger.com and Makaan. com, on Thursday announced a strategic restructuring aligned with its long-term business objective to become India's largest full-service online-to-offline real estate platform.

This follows the merger between Proptiger.com and Housing.com, which was announced last month.

Proptiger.com CEO Dhruv Agarwala said: "We have made a restructuring exercise to integrate the operations of the two companies."

Asked about the staff cut, he said: "Our headcount has come down by about 200 people from overlapping support functions of the two organisations."

He added: "This restructuring will ensure optimal utilisation of resources and leveraging of synergies across the merged entity."

The combined entity will be led by Dhruv Agarwala as the chief executive officer and will be supported by a team of senior executives.

The entity will now be restructured into two strategic business units –platform and transaction businesses.

Mani Rangarajan takes on the new role as chief business officer for the platform business, which comprises all developer and broker facing marketing solutions, visualisation products, data labs and consulting.

Bhaskar Bagchi will be the new chief business officer for the transaction division, which consists of primary, resale and home loans operations.

Sunil Mishra will be the new chief strategy officer. The rest of the roles remain unchanged. "Our vision is to help consumers find their dream home in a transparent and simple way. Strategic restructuring leads to sharper business focus that will take us a step closer to realising that vision," Agarwala said.

The merger saw REA Group, Australia's leading digital real estate player, come on board as a strategic investor to join the existing crop that includes News Corp, Softbank, SAIF Partners, Accel Partners and Nexus Venture Partners.

The joint entity received $55 million in fresh investment, which will be deployed to further strengthen the company's core capabilities and brand.