Telstra Clicks On In $76m China Deal
The Age
Saturday June 28, 2008
TELSTRA has again staked millions of dollars on its belief that China's online classifieds growth is yet to peak.
Twenty-two months after spending $US254 million ($A256.2 million) on a majority stake in real estate website SouFun, Telstra has returned to China to invest in four popular websites: automotive websites Che168.com and Autohome.com.cn, and electronic device websites PCPop.com and IT168.com.Telstra has paid $A76 million for 55% shareholdings in both Norstar Media (owner of Che168.com and IT168.com) and Autohome/PCPop, as well as the potential for smaller "earn-out" payments at the end of December, depending on performance.Telstra chief executive Sol Trujillo said the businesses had similar characteristics to SouFun, in that they were achieving "double-digit" annual revenue growth and "triple-digit" earnings growth."The Chinese market has become very interesting because it's so online-centric, and people do acquire information almost daily around things that are important to them, and the bigger (the) presence that we can have ... the better off we're going to be," Mr Trujillo said.Bruce Akhurst, chief executive of Telstra's Sensis media subsidiary, said all its new websites could be characterised by "a lot of advertorial material ... a lot of reviews (and) there's a lot of user-generated content"."The revenue model is listing revenues and display advertising - pretty much as we have for our other Sensis online properties and also with SouFun," he said.Mr Trujillo confirmed Telstra's eventual goal for the businesses was to have them listed on a sharemarket, albeit not for two or three years, at least.LINK? about.sensis.com.au
© 2008 The Age