Two realty majors float entity with $50 mn investment

New Delhi : Online real estate service providers PropTiger.com and Housing.com on Tuesday announced setting up Real Estate Agency (REA) Group Ltd with $50 million (Rs 341 crore) investment.

The group's affiliate SoftBank Group Corp will invest $5 million in the joint venture.

"As the ProperTiger's largest investor, the US-based media behemoth News Corp will hold 61.6 per cent equity in the new entity (REA Group)," the firms said in a joint statement here.

REA and SofttBank representatives will join the REA board as directors and a News Corp executive will continue to head the new group.

REA Chief Digital Officer Henry Ruiz, News Corp Sales Director Simon Barnett, and Managing Director of SoftBank Group International Jonathan Bullock will join Raju Narisetti (chair), Ravi Adusumalli from SAIF Partners and Prashanth Prakash from Accel Partners as investor directors on the board of the joint entity.

ProperTiger co-founder Dhruv Agarwala will be REA's Chief Executive, while Housing's CEO Jason Kothari will quit to pursue better opportunities in the domestic internet pace after being an advisor to the group till February.-Agency