Aurum PropTech to buy News Corp-backed Housing.com owner in Rs 458 cr share-swap

MUMBAI: Listed real estate technology firm Aurum PropTech has agreed to acquire Locon Solutions, the owner of property portal Housing. com, from News Corp Australia-backed REA Group in a Rs 458 crore all-share transaction, marking the biggest consolidation move in India's proptech sector.

The company has approved the acquisition of 100% of the equity shares, compulsorily convertible preference shares and compulsorily convertible debentures of Locon Solutions on a fully diluted basis from REA India. The transaction is expected to be completed before September 30.

As consideration, Aurum PropTech will issue 1,97,93,309 equity shares to REA India through a preferential allotment at Rs 231.42 per share. Following the allotment, REA India's shareholding in Aurum PropTech will increase to 24.9% from 5.54%.


“This is our ninth acquisition over the last four years. Housing. com strengthens the top of our funnel and is expected to be value accretive across the real estate value chain. This acquisition makes us the largest proptech company in the country. We will focus on increasing our market share every quarter,” Ashish Deora, Founder & CEO, Aurum Ventures, told ET.

According to Deora, REA Group, a $20 billion proptech company, becoming a substantial shareholder in Aurum will create significant opportunities to expand the proptech ecosystem in India.

The acquisition will enable Aurum to build an integrated property ecosystem spanning the home-buying journey, from customer discovery to transaction closure.

The company already operates across residential brokerage, enterprise SaaS, society management, digital sales and marketing, and data analytics, and has acquired companies including NestAway, K2V2 Technologies, HelloWorld Technologies, and PropTiger's enterprise technology business.

“Aurum has strong capability and local market knowledge to operate the India business effectively. We are confident it will be in the right hands and is well placed to build on the strong foundations the team has established,” said Cameron McIntyre, REA Group CEO.

The acquisition will integrate Housing. com marketplace with Aurum PropTech's ecosystem to create an end-to-end technology platform spanning consumer demand, developer inventory, brokerage, rentals and transactions.

Housing. com, which attracts over 58 million average monthly visits and has more than 12 million monthly active users, will help Aurum build a unified AI and data architecture across the real estate lifecycle.

For the financial year 2024-25, Locon Solutions reported audited turnover of Rs 687.46 crore, compared with Rs 447.49 crore in 2023-24. The company has an authorised share capital of Rs 68.31 crore and a paid-up share capital of Rs 28.04 crore.

Alongside the acquisition, Aurum PropTech's board approved the issuance of 51 lakh fully convertible warrants to promoter Aurum RealEstate Developers at Rs 231.42 per warrant, raising up to Rs 118.02 crore. The warrants will be convertible into an equal number of equity shares within 18 months of allotment.

The board also approved amendments to the company's Articles of Association to incorporate tag-along rights for REA India. Under the proposed provisions, REA will be entitled to participate in any negotiated sale of promoter shares, provided it and its affiliates continue to hold at least 10% of the company's paid-up share capital.

The proposals will be placed before shareholders for approval at an extraordinary general meeting scheduled for August 14.