Naspers acquired online marketplace Allegro in 2008 for USD 1.5 billion as part of the transaction when it bought auction site Tradus, adding that the business had generated cash of USD 714 million over the period, Reuters reports, citing official company releases. The company informed that it had used Allegro to establish other fast-growing businesses in Poland, such as ecommerce website OLX and payment platform PayU.
Naspers has its roots in 101 years of Afrikaans language newspaper publishing, but has grown its ecommerce business rapidly in the last decade, with Tradus one of its first large foreign investments. The Cape Town-based company also holds around a third of Chinese Internet firm TenCent Holdings .
Naspers will keep Polish investments OLX, PayU, Otomoto and Otodom and said its PayU unit will continue to provide payment processing services to Allegro under a multi-year agreement. Ceneo, which is sold along with Allegro, is a Polish price comparison business. The South African firm said it will use the proceeds to repay debt, fund the scaling-up of ecommerce businesses, and finance new acquisitions, the source cites.
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