Naspers has bought a Brazilian e-commerce group for US$342m, the media company said on Tuesday. It had acquired 91% of the share capital of BuscaPe.com which would be funded from available resources, the company said in a statement.

Headquartered in Sao Paulo, the BuscaPe group provides e-commerce services in Latin America. Its core business generates lead-referral revenues from merchants and other listing providers, the statement said.

BuscaPe provides Latin America’s with comparison shopping of more than 100 portals and websites in Latin America, including Microsoft,  Globo and Abril, with over 10 million products and more than 320 000 online and offline stores, Naspers said.

In recent years BuscaPe has acquired a competitor, Bondfaro. “It also expanded with QueBarato, the leading free-classifieds network in Latin America. Electronic payments can be done with Pagamento Digital.

“In addition it has an affiliate advertising network named Lomadee, an e-commerce research business, eBit, and a fraud risk assessment service, FControl,” Naspers said. “BuscaPe gives us a fast-growing business in line with our e-commerce focus,” said Antonie Roux, head of Internet at Naspers. “It’s a diversified internet platform: a whole spectrum of business models within the e-commerce value chain across core Latin American markets,” he said.

According to Naspers, Latin America is of particular interest.  “The region is home to some 550m people. Favourable demographics, rising disposable incomes, underleveraged consumers and a less-penetrated Internet market provides a good investment backdrop,” it said.

“After investments in Abril and Compera nTime, Naspers has developed a good understanding of the fast-growing Brazilian market.

BuscaPe is one of the few established players in the industry, and can grow further,” Hein Brand, CEO of Naspers’s operations in Latin America, said.  — Sapa