China’s 58.com and its chief executive Yao Jinbo are on the prowl for mergers and acquisitions, according to AIM Group newsletter Classified Intelligence Report.
Yao spoke to the Report’s Don Gasper following Global Mobile Internet conference in Beijing last month.
The company – which raised US$187 million on the Nasdaq market after a successful IPO last October – has a large war chest with which to expand: “We are on the lookout for suitable (merger and acquisition) opportunities,” he told Gasper.
He confirmed that 58.com was negotiating with a company specialising in recruitment advertising services, suggesting, “there may be an announcement about this later this year”.
Recruitment, where 58.com is focussed on blue-collar and service-related sectors, is seen as only one area of growth, the others being property and directories. “ Other growing areas are used automobiles, ticketing and prepaid services,” he told Gasper.
The company reported $107 million in sales in the year that ended in June 2013, however, it is open to nearly any area for expansion. “If the valuation is right and the price is right then we are interested in any M&A opportunity – not just in these areas,” Yao says.
Currently five million people use the 58.com platform every quarter, a focus on mobile traffic having pushed this share to 40 per cent.
“Maybe mobile traffic will overtake other traffic this year,” Yao said.
58.com has worked with phone companies to preinstall apps and will have its app on all Xiaomi smartphones this year.
While its geographic focus has been on mainland China, with little business yet in Hong Kong or Taiwan, “this may change by 2016”, he says.
See the full interview at www.aimgroup.com Reproduced with permission.
Pictured: Yao Jinbo (picture AIM Group)