OLX announces purchase of Zap Group for R$ 2.9 billion

The online classifieds company OLX announced on Tuesday (3) agreement to buy the real estate services group ZAP for R $ 2.9 billion, in a transaction financed by its two European shareholders. The payment will be made in cash and the transaction will still go through the evaluation of the Administrative Council of Economic Defense (Cade). In a press release, OLX Brasil, a joint venture between Norway's Adevinta and Dutch company Prosus, said its business is "highly complementary" and that the transaction offers "great opportunities for synergies and value creation." The company pointed out that the operation takes place at a time of high growth for the online advertising sector and the resumption of the real estate sector. OLX Brasil was created in 2010 and in recent years has focused on the real estate market. The Zap Group is the result of the merger of Zap Real Estate and Viva Real, held in 2017. Zap Real Estate was created in 2000 and is controlled indirectly by shareholders of Grupo Globo since 2013. Viva Real was launched in 2009. In 2018, the group had negative earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (Ebitda) of R$ 18 million and net revenue of R$ 217 million, according to data cited by OLX. The average visitation in 2019 per month was 28 million. The company did not report financial data from the acquired last year.