KKR-backed PropertyGuru Cancels Australian IPO Due To Market Uncertainty

Southeast Asian property platform PropertyGuru, whose backers include PE giants TPG Capital and KKR, has called off its planned initial public offering (IPO) on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX).

In an announcement on Wednesday, PropertyGuru said its board has decided to withdraw the listing “due to uncertainty in the current IPO market.”

Earlier this month, PropertyGuru had filed for the IPO, seeking to sell 84.5-93.3 million shares at an indicative price range of A$3.70-4.50 each.

At the midpoint of its indicative IPO range, PropertyGuru would have raised about A$362.6 million ($245 million). At the high end of the price range, it would have mopped up about A$380.2 million ($256.54 million). Its shares were due to start trading on Friday.

Reuters had on Tuesday reported that PropertyGuru was offering shares at the lower end of its indicative range.

“Despite strong engagement throughout the process with prospective investors, the Board and existing shareholders have determined not to proceed with the offer. This decision took into account current IPO market sentiment,” PropertyGuru chairman Olivier Lim said in a statement.

The company does not require new funds to be raised to fund its current business operations, according to its statement.

“Both major shareholders (TPG and KKR), representing aggregate ownership of 58 per cent, were not seeking to sell any shares at IPO and had entered into voluntary escrow arrangements until February 2021,” the company said.

PropertyGuru’s prospectus showed that founders Steve Melhuish and Jani Rautiainen, who together own around 11.58 per cent of the company, planned to pare their stake down to 7.21 per cent in the IPO.

PropertyGuru operates digital property classifieds marketplaces in five countries across Southeast Asia – Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia — and claims to have over 23 million property seekers on its platforms every month.

The company, which was one of the earliest property platforms launched in Southeast Asia in 2007, claims over 60 per cent consumer market share across its core markets.

Last year, KKR had invested S$200 million ($144.25 million) in PropertyGuru via a Series D financing round. The startup had closed a $125-million round in 2015 from Australia-based Square Peg Capital, private equity firm TPG and Indonesian conglomerate Emtek Group.

Among its biggest competitors in the region is Sequoia-backed 99.co, which formed a joint venture with ASX-listed REA Group this month to combine its existing businesses with the latter’s iProperty.com.sg and Rumah123.com located in Singapore and Indonesia.