SPH Interactive takes a bite into CoSine Holdings

SPH Interactive has acquired a 60% equity stake in privately-held CoSine Holdings. The purchase consideration of SG$30 million was for the 60% stake on a willing-buyer, willing-seller basis and was paid in cash.Cosine is the holding company for the StreetSine Technology Group, which consists of StreetSine Singapore, StreetSine Hong Kong, , and the digital platforms Singapore Real Estate Exchange (SRX) and Hong Kong Real Estate Exchange (HRX).StreetSine Singapore will integrate SRX and STProperty onto one digital platform that will offer consumers and real estate professionals end-to-end real-time information, property applications and other services for efficiently transacting real estate in Singapore.STProperty will retain its brand but will be completely integrated with SRX, HRX, srx.com.sg, and professional mobile applications including Agent Connect, New Project Marketing, and SRX Analyzer.Co-founders Sam Baker and Jeremy Lee will maintain a combined stake of 40% in StreetSine and will continue to run the company as chief executive officer and chief technology officer, respectively.Leslie Fong, senior executive vice president of SPH's marketing division, said:"StreetSine has set the standards for providing users with real-time pricing information and easy computation like X-Value, the market’s standard for computer-generated real-time property appraisals.”He added that STProperty has all the up-to-date and reliable listings any consumer want and hence combining SRX and STProperty, will “offer consumers and real estate professionals a one-stop shop for all the information they will need for all property-related transactions. "Expected benefits of the deal include:Greater Access to Real Estate Information.By integrating with SPH and STProperty, StreetSine expects to provide the real estate market with greater access to real-time property data and information.This information, including proprietary price indices, real-time price data, and trend analysis, will empower consumers, real estate agents, property developers, appraisers, credit analysts, researchers, government policy analysts and other property professionals to make more informed decisions about the market and individual property transactions.Broader Listing Distribution.The integration of StreetSine with STProperty and various SPH digital and print offerings will create the most far-reaching, digital property listing platform in Singapore.  This will bring economies-of-scale to consumers and their agents, estate agencies, developers and other property-related vendors.Enhanced Value and ROI for Advertisers.This deal will allow StreetSine and SPH to offer shared services and marketing platforms for advertisers that enhance agent productivity, marketing of property-related services, and deliver greater return on investment to advertisers.Technology Innovation for SPH Digital.StreetSine brings independent and advanced software engineering capabilities to SPH.Synergies.Integrating STProperty with StreetSine will allow operational synergies between the two businesses to be reaped.