Mubasher: The leading real estate portal in the UAE, Bayut, announced the acquisition of the Middle East Internet Group’s Lamudi in the GCC for an undisclosed sum.
This takeover agreement comes as part of the company’s expansion plan, as Bayut will take the ownership of all Lamudi assets across the GCC, including its portals in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and the UAE.
“This strategic acquisition comes at the heels of the recently closed $100 million in Series D funding of Emerging Markets Property Group (EMPG), the parent company of Bayut, which said it aims to aggressively grow and establish itself as the most dominant real estate classifieds solution in the GCC,” according to a press release.
Lamudi has an existing workforce surpassing 2,000 people across the UAE, Morocco, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Spain, and Romania; its portals receive over 9.5 million visits yielding 68 million pageviews and generating over 2 million enquiries each month.
“Middle East Internet Group, a Rocket Internet Company, has previously launched various successful e-commerce ventures in the region including Wadi,” according to the press release.
Lamudi.sa was the first real estate portal in Saudi Arabia in 2012, followed by Lamudi.jo in Jordan, which has a very strong presence in the Jordanian market. In 2015, Lamudi.ae was launched in the UAE.
Therefore, Bayut will take over all three assets as part of this acquisition deal.
CEO of Bayut Haider Ali Khan said, “Our extensive experience in similar markets puts us in a unique position to provide both clients and end-users with a highly sophisticated product that is built to address their needs. We aim to be a partner to them in their journey of selling or buying a home.”
He added, “Our brand name, Bayut, means homes in Arabic and our story is a very local one, and this is another step in making our brand a household name in the natively Arabic-speaking region.”
