By Press Association Published: 04:00 EDT, 1 May 2018 | Updated: 04:01 EDT, 1 May 2018 The company behind online property portal Zoopla has sold the Australian division of Hometrack for £71 million. ZPG, which acquired the property valuation firm in January last year for £120 million, said on Tuesday that it will offload the antipodean unit to local operator REA Group. Founder and chief executive Alex Chesterman said: “ZPG acquired Hometrack Australia as part of our acquisition of the wider Hometrack business in the UK last year and we have always been clear that our core markets are the UK and Europe. The firm behind Zoopla is leaving Australia (Mike Egerton/PA) “We believe that REA Group, as a local operator, would be a more natural owner of the Hometrack Australia business.” The deal is subject to approval from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. ZPG, which also owns uSwitch and Money.co.uk, has been on an expansion drive of late. The group failed in an attempt to take over GoCompare for £460 million last year but in November announced the acquisition of Dutch analytics firm Calcasa for 30 million euros (£26.5 million). ZPG said the deal will see the creation of the largest residential property valuation database in Europe. Shares in ZPG were nearly 5% higher at 364p in morning trade. Advertisement
ZPG, the parent company of estate agents' portal Zoopla, will sell the Australian arm of Hometrack to local operator REA Group for £71m ($96m). ZPG's CEO, Alex Chesterman, said REA was a "more natural owner" for the division since it is based in Australia and said ZPG would focus on its core markets of the UK and Europe. The unit was acquired by ZPG when it purchased the overall Hometrack business in the UK November. In last year, the firm acquired Dutch analytics firm Calcasa in a deal worth €30m ($36m).