OLX Group buys 39 percent stake in EMPG with $150 million investment

10x Industry

Mita Srinivasan
10x Industry
Published:

OLX Group buys 39 percent stake in EMPG with $150 million investment

The deal includes merger of OLX Group’s classifieds business with Emerging Markets Property Group (EMPG) in Pakistan, Egypt, Lebanon, and the United Arab Emirates

Dubai-based Emerging Markets Property Group (EMPG) that runs property portals in different emerging markets across the world including Bayut, has reached a valuation of over $1 billion after raising a $150 million round led by OLX Group and its existing shareholders. The deal includes merger of OLX Group’s classifieds business with Emerging Markets Property Group (EMPG) in Pakistan, Egypt, Lebanon, and the United Arab Emirates.

OLX Group has now become the single largest shareholder of EMPG, owning 39 percent of the company. The $150 million investment is fresh cash injection and will be used by the EMPG to develop a range of new services, creating a more seamless user experience, enhancing data transparency, and deepening market intelligence for both consumers and business users.

EMPG will now operate existing OLX platforms in Egypt and Lebanon and roll out new services for the real estate community. In Pakistan and United Arab Emirates, EMPG’s Zameen and Bayut as well as OLX Groups’ OLX and Dubizzle will now be run by EMPG. EMPG will also operate OLX’s platforms in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, and Oman after this deal.

The aggregated value of properties sold in these markets is estimated at $90 billion, providing a commission pool for real estate agencies of over US $2 billion per annum.

Imran Ali Khan, the co-founder, and CEO of EMPG, said, “This deal puts us one step further in our journey towards providing solutions in multiple markets to over a billion consumers around the world, expanding our classifieds offering significantly.”

Martin Scheepbouwer, CEO of OLX Group, says “The next phase is an exciting one, with EMPG’s real estate industry expertise helping to deepen the customer experience. As EMPG’s largest shareholder, we’ll have a front seat to explore how we can scale their services model further – taking our ambition to shape the future of classifieds into its next stage.”

EMPG is currently present in the GCC region with Bayut, Pakistan with Zameen, Bangladesh with Bproperty, Morocco and Tunisia with Mubawab, and Thailand with Kaidee.