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Naspers Fully Acquires Dubizzle For USD 190 Mn

| January 14, 2019

The investment arm of South Africa’s Naspers – Myriad International Holdings – has decided to go all in and acquire the entire stake in Dubai-based Dubizzle for USD 190 Mn. According to the firm’s interim results, Naspers now owns a 100 percent stake in the company.

December 2012, Naspers made their first investment in Dubizzle, acquiring a 25 percent stake in the company through its MIH subsidiary. Through OLX, Naspers eventually went in for more to own 53 percent of the company, giving them the lion share. Having gone for the full deal at USD 190 Mn, Dubizzle is now valued at USD 409 Mn.

Dubizzle was founded in 2005 by Sim Whatley and JC Butler and is the leader in online classified in the UAE, receiving nearly 8 million visitors each month. In August 2013, the founders announced that they were leaving the UAE to return home to the U.S, eight years after launching Dubizzle. They relinquished their day-to-day running of the company, which as at then had grown to include websites in 10 cities across the Middle East. According to an Arabian Business interview, both men were expecting babies in December that year, and needed to relocate to commune with family and friends. It was a difficult situation at the time, but it was a sacrifice both founders were willing to make.

The step down was also believed to have been as a result of majority stake acquisition by Naspers. After hiring talented staff who could act independently, both founders were reported to have felt less needed. Making good on their pre-intention to transition out of the business, Whatley, and Butler, both sold a portion of their equity to investor MIH. They had both built the company from scratch and had invested USD 12 K of their personal money, lived on passion and a 10-AED-a-day budget until they met an angel investor in 2006.

This isn’t the first mark of the newspaper firm’s prominence in investments, as they have a 30 percent stake in China’s Tencent Holdings, 28.7% stake in Digital Sky Technologies, others in Souq.com, Delivery Hero and another in Russia’s Mail.ru. Naspers, who is also listed on the London Stock Exchange, made the recent acquisition to increase its global presence in classifieds, payments and food delivery verticals.