SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA: hipages Group Holdings (ASX: HPG), Australia and New Zealand’s largest online tradie marketplace and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) provider, signed an agreement with Home Trades Hub Australia (HTHA) to divest its 19.5% stake in PropTech Labs for $8.4 million.

Home Trades Hub Australia (HTHA) is a subsidiary of Royal Automobile Club of Victoria (RACV).

PropTech Labs, formerly known as Bricks and Agent, rebranded in FY23 following a change in strategy and the subsequent acquisitions of Maintenance Manager and Inspection Manager, and the launch of Invoice Automate.

After an approach from another shareholder, the Group has agreed to divest its shareholding. The timing of completion is conditional on other PropTech Lab shareholders waiving their pre-emptive rights under the shareholders agreement or participating in the divestment. Completion is expected to occur by December 2023, with hipages to provide limited seller warranties.

On completion, hipages will realise a 30.9% overall pre-tax return on its original investment of $6.25m, made in November 2021. The Group will continue its commercial partnership with PropTech Labs, providing access to job flow from its network of more than lm properties under management.

The Group does not consider the proceeds of M&A activity in calculating its free cash flow. Its target of being free cash flow positive in FY24, as announced at its FY23 results, did not assume any asset divestments, and the Group reaffirms this target.

The hipages marketplace continues to carry strong momentum with healthy tradie demand and job flow. The Group will provide a further update on YTD trading at its AGM on 9 November 2023.

hipages Group CEO and Co-founder, Roby Sharon-Zipser, said: “Since our original investment in late 2021, PropTech Labs has grown to become the ANZ market leader for property management hipages Group, and following an approach by another shareholder, we decided the time was right to divest our stake for an attractive return.

On completion, the cash will give us additional financial flexibility to execute our strategy while retaining a healthy capital buffer. We are pleased to continue our commercial partnership with PropTech Labs and look forward to continuing to work with Raf, Jon and the team.”

hipages buys online tradie marketplace, Builderscrack for A$11.8mn