Richard Li-backed SPAC agrees to buy Singapore’s PropertyGuru for US$1.8 billion

A special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) backed by Hong Kong billionaire Richard Li Tzar-kai and billionaire technology investor Peter Thiel agreed on Friday to acquire Singapore’s PropertyGuru Group in a deal that values Southeast Asia’s biggest property technology company at about US$1.8 billion.

It is the first transaction by one of Li’s three US-listed blank-cheque companies, which have raised collectively more than US$1 billion under the Bridgetown Holdings brand over the past 10 months. Li, the younger son of Hong Kong property tycoon Li Ka-shing, also is in the early stages of setting up a fourth SPAC.

Bridgetown 2, a Li-backed SPAC that raised US$299 million in an initial public offering in January, would acquire PropertyGuru, which counts private equity firms TPG Capital and Kohlberg Kravis and Roberts (KKR) as investors, and take the combined entity public on New York Stock Exchange.

“This process of becoming a public company will provide us with greater financial resources to do what we do best – helping people find, finance and own their homes in an efficient and transparent manner,” said Hari Krishnan, chief executive officer at PropertyGuru in a press release.

Bridgetown 2’s stock traded in recent weeks around its US$10 stock price amid a more muted atmosphere for SPACs, which had been one of the hottest fundraising trends globally since early last year.