Pacific
Century CyberWorks Ltd. (PCCW) has taken a 25 percent stake in pp.com, a Hong Kong-based property site.
Terms of the investment were not disclosed.
pp.com has offices in Singapore, Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou.
It plans to open 10 offices around the region by end of this year and has already linked
up with 100 property developers in Guangzhou, according to company officials.
The Web site provides interactive tools for sourcing
property information: Market Update, Budget Tracker, Neighborhood, Home
Hunter, Home Valuer, Mortgage Wizard, Settlement Guide and Home Style
Guide.
Alex Arena, group managing director of PCCW, said pp.com fit his firm’s investment
strategy of supporting new Internet businesses in Asia Pacific.
He added that the Web site will be a future contributor to its Network of
the World (NOW), a broadband service that will allow users to browse the Net via
TV sets through connection of set-top boxes.
In other news involving PCCW, an announcement on the proposed PCCW and Cable
& Wireless HKT Ltd merger was rumored, and trading in PCCW stock was suspended on Friday morning.
However, no announcement was forthcoming, and
details of the proposed merger are expected next week, according to company
officials.