Acquisition of Core Estates Limited

GMG Property Services Group (‘PSG’) today announces the acquisition of Core Estates Limited for an undisclosed sum.

Wolverhampton-based Core Estates Limited is a software business providing solutions to the independent estate agency sector.

The business will complement PSG’s other property interests: VEBRA Solutions Limited and www.thinkproperty.com. It will be operated as a separate trading division of PSG and founders Geoff Core and Gary Norton will stay with the business.

GMG Property Services Group is a recently formed division of Guardian Media Group plc.

Mark Goddard, Managing Director of GMG Property Services Group, said: “The addition of Core to the PSG portfolio furthers our strategy of delivering first-class solutions to the UK property sector. The Core Estates management team shares this goal, and I am delighted to welcome them as part of the enlarged team.”

ENDS

Notes to Editors

 Core Estates Limited is a provider of software solutions to the UK and Irish estate agency market.

 VEBRA Solutions, a provider of estate agency software and the UK’s no2 Business and Finance – Property website*, is wholly owned by GMG Property Services Group, a new division within Guardian Media Group (*Source: Hitwise, March 2007).

 GMG Property Services Group also owns thinkproperty.com, a major, independent consumer property portal, which is now ranked 4th within the top 10 UK property portals and has seen unprecedented growth since its relaunch in December 2006.
(* Source: Hitwise, August 2007). Thinkproperty.com has over 1 million unique users a month and 480,000 properties from the UK and overseas.

 Guardian Media Group plc (‘GMG’) is one of the UK’s leading multimedia companies. Its diverse portfolio includes:

– Guardian News & Media: the Guardian and Observer newspapers and the Guardian Unlimited network of websites.
– GMG Regional Media: the Manchester Evening News, a number of other regional newspapers in the North West and South of England, the Channel M city TV station and the Manchester Online website.
– GMG Radio: 13 regional radio stations by the end of 2007 under the Real Radio, Smooth Radio, Century FM and Rock Radio brands.
– Trader Media Group: one of Europe’s largest specialist print and online media companies, and publisher of the Auto Trader magazine and website. Trader Media Group is jointly owned by GMG and Apax Partners, with GMG as the majority shareholder.
– GMG Property Services Group: Vebra, a provider of software to independent estate agents and thinkproperty.com, the consumer-facing portal.

 GMG is wholly owned by the Scott Trust, which was created in 1936 to secure the financial and editorial independence of the Guardian in perpetuity.