Guardian Media Group creates new property services division

Guardian Media Group plc (‘GMG’) today announces the formation of a new property services division.

GMG Property Services Group will comprise two operating units: Vebra, the UK’s leading software provider for independent estate agents; and Thinkproperty.com, the country’s fastest growing consumer-facing property portal.

Vebra is a long-established and profitable business that has been providing market-leading software solutions for over 25 years. 13,000 people use its products every day.

In a very short period of time Thinkproperty.com has built up some 400,000 properties and relationships with more than 4,000 estate agents, and is the only major property portal fully to embrace Web 2.0 functionality.

Vebra and Thinkproperty.com were part of Trader Media Group (‘TMG’), but have been retained as wholly owned businesses within GMG following the sale of a 49.9 per cent stake in TMG, which valued the Auto Trader publisher at £1.35 billion.

Carolyn McCall, Chief Executive of Guardian Media Group, said: “The formation of this new division is the first stage of our strategy to develop GMG’s presence in the property services segment.

“Vebra and Thinkproperty.com have great potential in a growth area, which is one of the reasons we chose to retain them fully within GMG. We are prepared to invest further to grow, and the leverage offered by our leading brands and businesses across the Group – such as Guardian Unlimited, Auto Trader, MEN Media and our radio stations – will allow us to give substantial support to this new division.”

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Further information: Chris Wade 020 7713 4041 / 07740 595 563