Japan’s Next buys Spanish classified ads site Trovit for €80 million

Japanese real estate information firm Next has purchased Barcelona-based vertical search engine Trovit for €80 million.

Trovit, which was founded in Spain in 2006 by Iñaki Ecenarro, Raúl Puente, Daniel Giménez and Enrique Domínguez, operates in 39 countries in North and South America, Africa, Asia and Europe.

Next said the purchase was part of its strategy to grow site traffic by improving its search engine optimization and web marketing. The company, which has also recently expanded into Indonesia, Thailand and Taiwan, said the decision to acquire Trovit was also based on the conclusion that, as a subsidiary, it would “enable Next to build a massive platform offering real estate and lifestyle information across the world.”

One of the world’s largest real estate aggregators, Next has over 86 million property listings worldwide

Trovit turned over €17.5 million between December 2013 and the same month in 2014, an increase of 20% on the previous financial period. It attracts more than 47 million unique visitors a month and has partnerships with more than 20,000 firms. One of the world’s largest real estate aggregators, it has over 86 million property listings worldwide.

Next, which was founded in 1997, is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, and owns HOME’S, the leading real estate site in Japan, among others.

“This purchase will give us experience in the low-cost segment, along with content provision deals with Trovit’s customer base,” said Next in a statement to the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

Trovit was set up in 2006 by Ecenarro, an entrepreneur with a track history of creating successful tech start ups. In 2005, he founded Weblogs, a site for specialist online blogs.