As well as expecting shorter lease lengths and co-working trends, occupiers are looking beyond traditional sector ‘districts’. Despite the recent, much-publicised problems of WeWork and some smaller providers, flexible workspace is booming. Silver Lake agreed to buy property platform ZPG Plc for almost 2.2 billion pounds ($3 billion) as the U.S. private-equity investor seeks to grow further in U.K. real-estate data. Silver Lake is the global leader in technology investing, with more than $60 billion in combined assets under management and committed capital and a team of approximately 100 investment and operating professionals located around the world. Silver Lake/Zoopla deal will have far-reaching implications for UK property and proptech. For the UK property industry, this means more change. The average price for property in Silverlake stood at £674,327 in July 2018. “The terms of the acquisition represent an attractive premium that recognises the quality of ZPG’s businesses and the strength of its future prospects and allows shareholders to realise today in cash the potential future value of their holdings.”The acquisition is subject to conditions, including receipt of merger control approval from the European Commission and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), and is expected to be completed during the third quarter of 2018.Mr Chesterman concluded: “I am very excited about the opportunity this deal offers to our employees, customers and partners as we move to the next stage of ZPG’s development and growth.”Latest news, featured reports and articles collated by Financier Worldwide London’s West End footfall down by two-thirds on last yearMayor of London gives Dagenham studios the go aheadMarlet mulls selling One Lime Street after securing €65m loanExperts unhappy with FCA proposal for open-ended fundsTravelodge landlords must decide whether to stay or goQ&A: ‘People don’t want to live in a soulless tower block’View from the top: Nelson Mills, CEO of Columbia Property TrustThe office will remain vital for employee collaboration
The company behind online property portal Zoopla has sold the Australian division of Hometrack for £71m, less than 18 months after acquiring the whole of the property valuation firm for £120m. Earlier this month Silver Lake, a US private equity firm, This is by far the biggest deal so far in the broader UK proptech universe and warrants further analysis. No comments. In a move that is expected to give a massive boost to the PropTech sector, US private equity (PE) firm Silver Lake is to acquire ZPG, parent company of Zoopla, one of the UK’s largest internet property search companies.The deal will see the PE giant pay £2.2bn for ZPG, a leading residential property data and software provider with a range of products, including, in addition to Zoopla, the PrimeLocation, uSwitch and SmartNewHomes websites.Since its initial public offering in 2014, ZPG has evolved and diversified and made significant progress toward becoming the platform of choice for consumers and partners engaged in property and household decisions. The deal … Regarding points two to five, of course I do not know what Chesterman has planned, but it’s a safe bet it will have far-reaching implications for our industry.The UK proptech market is flourishing and with the help of more early-stage funding could soon rival that of the US. Generating enough homes to service demand is the key to unlocking the housing shortage. Commercial office occupier requirements are evolving – and quickly. Zoopla owner ZPG’s largest investor is DMGT, the parent company of the Daily Mail. BY Fraser Tennant In a move that is expected to give a massive boost to the PropTech sector, US private equity (PE) firm Silver Lake is to acquire ZPG, parent company of Zoopla, one of the UK’s largest internet property search companies. These are in no particular order, but hopefully present some interesting food for thought:Of the above, the first point is probably a given – almost ‘business as usual’. Founded in 2007, ZPG's websites and apps attract over 50 million visits per month and over 25,000 business partners use its services.“ZPG is a great growth technology company,” said Simon Patterson, managing director of Silver Lake. We are delighted to partner with Alex Chesterman, one of Europe’s leading and most accomplished technology entrepreneurs, to invest in ZPG’s continued growth.”Founded in 1999 and headquartered in Silicon Valley, Silver Lake is the global leader in technology investing, with an estimated $39bn in combined assets under management and committed capital.“I am firmly of the belief that ZPG will benefit from Silver Lake’s technology expertise and global network, which will help accelerate our growth,” said Alex Chesterman, founder and chief executive of ZPG. It holds or has exited investments in Alibaba, Tesla, Skype, Zygna and Symantec. Everyone aspires to have a place they can call home. “It has established strong positions in property classifieds, home and financial services markets by innovating in product and marketing. It is not looking to make small bets on unambitious management teams.Zoopla’s diversification strategy, which was started out of necessity (against the dominance of Rightmove and the possible competitive threat of OnTheMarket), has been very successful and created a huge cross-selling machine.Furthermore, the acquired businesses were bought at sensible multiples that when examined with the benefit of hindsight, after growth and cross selling, look cheap.Thirdly, companies often ‘go private’ in order to make changes that are too radical, ambitious or long term for the public markets to tolerate.Given the above, I think it is fair to assume the new ZPG/Silver Lake team will have big ambitions. For the UK proptech industry, it’s exciting, because very large amounts of American capital has landed for the first time, dwarfing the mostly small sums invested by British investors to date.Here I lay out some thoughts as to what direction ZPG may take over the next three to five years.