US Private Equity Firm to Acquire UK Real Estate Listing Company

ZPG, a company controlling UK property listing sites such as Zoopla, Prime Location and uSwitch is being acquired by a US Private Equity firm named Silver Lake, in a £2.2bn deal. Silver Lake, which has invested in Multinational Companies including Alibaba, GoDaddy and Tesla, offered a 490p share bid which is near about a third higher than ZPG’s recent closing price.
It is believed that, the deal has been supported by more than 31 % of Investors including the directors of ZPG, who hold 1% stake in the company. Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT), which bears 30 % stake in ZPG, has also agreed upon the deal.
On this, Alex Chesterman, founder and CEO of Zoopla, stated that, “Silver Lake is the global leader in technology investing and I am firmly of the belief that ZPG will benefit from their technology expertise and global network which will help accelerate our growth. I am very excited about the opportunity this offers to our employees, customers and partners as we move to the next stage of ZPG’s development and growth.”
ZPG shares went up by more than 30% as per the figures of recent trading.
Silver Lake’s Managing Director Simon Patterson said that, “ZPG is a great growth technology company. It has established strong positions in property classifieds, home and financial services markets by innovating in product and marketing.”
Zoopla is a website that helps consumers in UK to find homes, where estate agents pay for properties listing as property owners cannot list there directly. This deal will give Silver Lake entry into the UK market during a period where traditional methods of real estate are fading away.
The closure of the deal is expected to take place in third quarter of this year.