Swiss group Ringier became the sole owner of the real estate portal imobiliare.ro in Romania, four years after it became its majority shareholder, Profit.ro reported.

Ringier paid EUR 21 million in 2016, and further payments of about EUR 10 mln were expected in the following two years, depending on the financial performance of the business taken over.

Of this amount, the American investment company NCH Capital, which controlled the portal, collected 60%. The remaining 40% was owned by the founders of imobiliare.ro.

Now, Ringier Romania has acquired the remaining shares from the three founders, Adrian Erimescu, Ciprian Gheran, and Radu Andrei.

Ringier has appointed Dan Puică, former CEO of BestJobs and financial director of OLX, as CEO.

Last month, Puică took over the management of the startup Avocado.red, in which local investment fund Neogen Capital has so far invested EUR 0.5 million.

In April 2019, Neogen also invested EUR 500,000 in the real estate portal Casta.ro, a competitor of imobiliare.ro.

editor@romania-insider.com