SINGAPORE (REUTERS) - South-east Asian online realtor PropertyGuru Group, which counts buyout firms TPG Capital and KKR among its backers, is targeting an Australian IPO which could raise up to A$400 million (S$378.5 million) this year, sources with knowledge of the deal told Reuters on Tuesday (Sept 10).
Senior officials from the Singapore-based company, which operates real estate portals in the region, will start meeting Australian investors within the next few weeks before starting their pitches to Asian and US investors, two sources said.
An external spokesman of PropertyGuru said: "We are considering a number of funding and strategic options but no decision has been made at this time."
PropertyGuru has appointed UBS and Credit Suisse as joint lead managers for the IPO. Both banks declined comment.
Meanwhile, PropertyGuru Group on Tuesday announced it has appointed Olivier Lim as independent chairman as well as Jenny Macdonald and Melanie Wilson as independent non-executive directors to its board.
This comes as four directors including the company's co-founder - Jani Rautiainen, who continues to be a shareholder - retire from the board.
The appointments of Mr Lim, Ms Macdonald and Ms Wilson are part of a broader exercise to evolve the property technology company's corporate governance in tandem with its growth trajectory and the increasing scale of its business, PropertyGuru said.
Mr Lim is chairman of Certis Cisco and Frasers Property Australia. He serves on the board of directors of DBS Bank, and on the board of trustees of Singapore Management University, among others. Previously, Mr Lim was chairman of property group Australand.
Ms Macdonald will head PropertyGuru's audit and risk committee. She used to be a chief financial officer and has considerable experience in marketplace businesses, PropertyGuru said. Ms Macdonald is now a director on the boards of companies including Bapcor Limited - an Australia-listed provider of automotive aftermarket parts, and Redbubble - a global online marketplace based in Melbourne and San Francisco.
Ms Wilson will chair the group's nomination and remuneration committee. She has years of experience as a director for consumer-oriented businesses, and sits on the boards of Australian nursery retailer Baby Bunting, insurance and utilities comparison website iSelect, and payments solutions provider EML Payments, among other firms.
Other than the three new appointments, the board now also comprises co-founder and executive director Steve Melhuish, chief executive officer and executive director Hari Krishnan, three non-executive directors - Dominic Picone, Terence Lee and Paul Bassat - as well as Ganen Sarvananthan as adviser to the board.
Separately, in July this year, the company appointed industry veteran Tan Tee Khoon as country manager for Singapore. Dr Tan left Knight Frank Singapore in June, where he was a key executive officer of agency arm KF Property Network and head of residential project marketing.
With additional information from The Business Times
