The investment company Pegroco Invest has announced the sales of its holdings in Bangkok-headquartered Diakrit International Ltd to the media group News Corp. Australia in a cash sale.
Pegroco has been an active owner in Diakrit since 2004 and has, together with the company’s management and SEB Venture Capital, been the main owners of the company. In the transaction Pegroco receives, depending on the dollar exchange rate, approximately 140 million Swedish crowns.
“Pegroco has actively supported Diakrit from when the company was a start-up in Laholm, Sweden, with a strong vision, to today’s situation with world-leading digital products and services for estate agents, rental portals and property developers all around the world. Diakrit now has a base of around 2000 customers,” says Fredrik Bergman, CEO of Diakrit.
“We think Diakrit is a good example of showing that Pegroco’s form of active and tong-term ownership works. It is especially pleasing that the considerable investments made during recent years, in Diakrit’s product development and services, and in the making of an ultramodern production facility in Bangkok with over 450 employees, have been successful and have given a good return on invested capital,” comments Thomas Brue, CEO of Pegroco.
The company is now well prepared and positioned for the next step in its development, now under the ownership of one of the world’s leading and most dynamic media groups, writes Pegroco
The parties have agreed to keep the terms of the agreement confidential.
Pegroco is an investment company that invests in smaller and medium sized unlisted companies, predominantly in Sweden. Pegroco is an active owner and primarily seeks companies with an established market position and preferably those that have a need for a major change. This need can be structural or business-oriented.
“News Corp. really believes in our products. We have created a very strong platform in Scandinavia where we are by far the biggest of visualizations of real estate. They are a dream partner for us now as we take the company globally,” Diakrit-founder Fredrik Bergman says to Breakit.se.
Sights are now set to quintuple sales to over 1 billion within a year or two, says the founders, according to digital.di.se
Diakrit co-founder Dick Karlsson says that the founders and management will retain all of their shares.
“We want to maintain our ownership. It is our investors who now choose to step out and sell their shares to News Corp. For us this is absolutely perfect now that we will take the company to the next level. We as founders are extremely happy and satisfied, “he says.
He says that the origin of the deal is that the two companies have been running into each other at property fairs in recent years. Australian News Corp. has also invested a range of digital real estate portals – equivalents to Swedish Hemnet and Objektia.
The deal makes the media mogul Rupert Murdoch’s company News Corp. the largest shareholder in Swedish Diakrit (41 percent), which provides services for residential views in VR.
In 2015 Diakrit had sales of SEK 180 million and had, according to management, an EBITDA margin of 10 percent.
In late 2015 Diakrit announced it would take the company to the next level with the help of technology linked to the virtal reality. In practice this means that Diakrit created a VR app that allows you to inspect the flats which are still only on the drawing stage. In 2016, the construction company NCC will offer all potential buyers of newly built homes that opportunity.
NCC thus becomes the first to use Diakrit’s solution but several other construction companies will follow suit. The next step is to look at existing homes with VR app. To use this app a pair of VR glasses are required.
