The former chief executive of Domain and his business partner, billionaire Alex Waislitz, increased their stake in property classifieds business Real Estate View in early February as they prepared to bring together a range of companies controlled by investment vehicle, IMP. Catalano said at the time he could offer investors a competitive alternative to existing real-estate platforms.
VMG owns 72.6 per cent of Australian property site realestateview.com.au, a shareholding in utility connections’ platform Beevo and is a major shareholder in data and AI business, Propic. The new business recently received investment from Seven West Media, a deal which gives it free advertising across Seven’s television network.
An ASX listing is still on the cards, but is expected to exclude the publishing division, Australian Community Media.
Catalano was the former chief executive of Domain until 2018. He sold his business Metro Media Publishing to Fairfax Media (now Nine) in 2015. Kent worked for Catalano as group director of Domain Media, while Casson was the managing director of Domain Victoria. They both left in 2018.
“I really enjoyed my time at Domain – we built some incredible products and customer relationships, and we grew that business from a $200 million dollar business to a $3 billion or thereabouts in five years,” Kent said.
“There is an opportunity to shake the market up and do things differently … to make sure that we serve as buyers better because I don’t think either the [Domain] or [REA Group] do a particularly good job at that.”
The Business Briefing newsletter delivers major stories, exclusive coverage and expert opinion. Sign up to get it every weekday morning.
