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PropertyGuru is a web based property search firm.
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PropertyGuru Group, a property know-how firm from Southeast Asia, opened for buying and selling Friday after finishing its $1.61 billion merger with a blank- verify firm backed by billionaires Richard Li and Peter Thiel.
The itemizing isn’t the primary time that PropertyGuru (ticker: PGRU) tried to go public. In 2019, the Singapore firm tried to drift its shares on the Australian inventory change. however didn’t go forward. “Market situations weren’t optimum. We determined to pause,” Hari Krishnan, CEO and managing director of PropertyGuru, instructed Barron’s from the New York Inventory Change.
As an alternative, PropertyGuru selected to reinvest within the enterprise. In 2020, it raised $220 million in a funding spherical led by TPG (TPG) and
KKR (KKR). “Our enterprise is stronger than it’s ever been now. We felt the corporate was properly positioned to monetize the post-Covid restoration interval,” Krishnan mentioned.
On Friday, shares of PropertyGuru (ticker: PGRU) closed at $8.60, down 14% in its first day as a mixed firm. PropertyGuru closed its merger Friday with Bridgetown 2 Holdings Restricted, which went public in January 2021 at $10 a share.
Based in 2007, PropertyGuru is a web based property search firm that customers use to discover a dwelling to purchase, hire or put money into Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, and Vietnam. The corporate had related greater than 52 million property seekers with over 57,000 brokers as of June 30, according to regulatory filings.
Bridgetown 2 is the particular objective acquisition firm, or SPAC, that’s backed by Li’s funding unit, Pacific Century Group, and Thiel’s Thiel Capital. The merger, introduced in July, offers PropertyGuru at an enterprise worth of $1.36 billion and a $1.61 billion fairness worth.
SPACs increase cash in an preliminary public providing with the purpose of discovering a non-public firm and merging with it. The cash collected within the IPO sits in a belief incomes curiosity till there’s a merger. SPACs even have a deadline. They need to full a enterprise mixture inside a sure interval or threat having to provide the cash again to buyers. Most SPACs that went public in 2021 have 18 to 24 months to seek out and full a merger.
Bridgetown 2 is a part of the SPAC class of 2021, the 613 blank-check corporations that went public that 12 months, elevating $162.5 billion, according to data from SPAC Research. Greater than 50 SPACs from 2021, together with Bridgetown 2, have accomplished a enterprise mixture, Renaissance Capital mentioned. This implies about 560 blank-check corporations from that 12 months have but to shut a deal.
SPACs have been as soon as one among their hottest sectors of thr IPO market. Their fortunes reversed after a number of offers carried out badly. SPACs usually checklist their shares at $10 however many of those shares haven’t traded properly. A majority of the SPACs which have closed offers are beneath $10, Renaissance Capital mentioned.
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When requested in regards to the decline in SPAC shares, Krishnan pointed to the businesses. SPACs are a “confirmed enterprise mannequin. There may be nothing unique about it,” he mentioned. Companies searching for to checklist their shares ought to have “good unit economics, a enterprise that’s run properly. Good innovation. All these fundamentals stay the identical whether or not you do a standard IPO or a SPAC,” he mentioned. Krishnan didn’t touch upon PropertyGuru’s inventory efficiency Friday.
Some buyers have instructed Barron’s that the lag to shut a deal is as a result of some non-public corporations aren’t able to be public. Krishnan mentioned there are a number of parts that an organization should meet to commerce publicly, together with having the fitting governance and construction.
“The journey of turning into a publicly listed enterprise takes effort,” he mentioned.
Write to Luisa Beltran at [email protected]
