Naspers has acquired 91% stake of Brazilian e-commerce group BuscaPe.com for $342m. The company said that the acquisition will be funded from available resources.
Headquartered in Sao Paulo, the BuscaPe group is a provider of e-commerce services in Latin America. The company said that its various properties allow consumers to make informed purchase decisions and transact on the internet. The core business generates lead-referral revenues from merchants and other listing providers.
Antonie Roux, head of internet at Naspers, said: “BuscaPe gives us a fast-growing business in line with our e-commerce focus. It’s a diversified internet platform: a whole spectrum of business models within the e-commerce value chain across core Latin American markets.”
BuscaPe group started ten years ago and is a provider of comparison shopping offerings to more than 100 portals and websites in Latin America, including Microsoft, Globo and Abril, with over 10 million products and over 320 000 online and offline stores.
In recent years, BuscaPe acquired a competitor, Bondfaro. It also expanded with QueBarato, a free-classifieds network in Latin America. Electronic payments can be done with Pagamento Digital. In addition it has an affiliate advertising network named Lomadee, an e-commerce research business, eBit, and a fraud risk assessment service, FControl.
The group said that the management team consisting of four of the initial founders will remain in the business with material personal interests locked in for up to five years.
Romero Rodrigues, CEO of BuscaPe said, “given Naspers’ extensive experience in the internet, they can help us grow to the next level.”
Hein Brand, CEO of Naspers’s operations in Latin America, said: “After investments in Abril and Compera nTime, Naspers has developed a good understanding of the fast-growing Brazilian market. BuscaPe is one of the few established players in the industry, and can grow further.”
