News Corp buys stake in PropTiger. com
It’s group’s largest investment in India and latest in series of deals in country’s fast- growing eCommerce sector
Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp has acquired a minority stake in Indian property start- up PropTiger. com for $ 30 million ( Dh110 million), marking the media group’s largest investment in the country and the latest in a series of deals in India’s fastgrowing eCommerce sector.
The deal marks the first of a series of investments, according to Raju Narisetti, News Corp’s senior vice- president for strategy.
“We see a big digital opportunity in India, where digital use is booming and demographics are favourable, and this is the first stage of that,” he said. “I would look at it as the beginning of several things we would do in the future.”
News Corp picked up a 25 per cent holding in Elara Technologies, the parent of the website, which provides information on India’s growing but fragmented and formidably complex market for newbuild residential property.
Online property listings is the latest Indian eCommerce sector to attract attention from global investors, as excitement over new funding rounds for larger retail technology groups such as Flipkart and Snapdeal cascades down to smaller start- ups in more niche markets.
The deal also underlines News Corp’s continued push for digital expansion, following the $ 950 million purchase in September of Move, the owner of US- based property website Realtor. com. The company has a long- time majority holding in Australia’s realestate. com. au, and a stake in iProperty, which operates in south- east Asia.
In 2013, Murdoch split News Corp into a newspaper and publishing group, and the newly- created 21st Century Fox, a faster- growing broadcast and entertainment business.
21st Century Fox has extensive and rapidly- expanding interests in India, ranging from its Star television channels and a Bollywood movie studio to stakes in newlylaunched leagues for sports including football and kabaddi, a traditional Indian variant of wrestling.