The biggest real estate portal in Romania has just been acquired by Swiss Media Group Ringier for an incredible amount of EUR 31 million. Negotiation between the two parties was first announced at the beginning of March by Ziarul Financial. By the end of the month Ringier already signed a contract to make immediate payment of EUR 21 million and another payment for the rest of the amount within two years, conditioned on the business performance, reports Romania Insider.
Imobiliare.ro was founded in 2000 by a local Romanian company Realmedia Network and its team: Götz Kurt, Adrian Erimescu, Ciprian Gheran, and Laurentiu Andrei. In 2005, the American NCH Capital, led by Siminel Andrei, invested USD 100 000 in the portal. This left Realmedia Network team with 39.4% stake in the business. The company soon turned into the biggest real estate portal in Romania, reporting revenues of up to EUR 2.1 million in 2014, as officially declared by the Romanian Ministry of Finance. The high valuation of the portal comes at no surprise as data analysis for February show about 2.5 million visits, around 1 million of which are reported as unique visitors.
Ringier is a global media enterprise operating in 14 countries worldwide. Their portfolio includes a number of online marketplaces and innovative e-commerce platforms. Apart from imobiliare.ro, Ringier has also acquired the job portal eJobs.ro as well as several print and online media products.
