The world's largest online employment marketplace SEEK Limited (ASX: SEK) today announced it is to make two investments totalling US$20 million into Indian and African website operators as part of its global expansion strategy.
For US$10 million SEEK will take a 38% equity interest in Babajob, an Indian jobs website that is still in an investment and development phase.
The other US$10 million is to take a 30% equity interest in OAM an African website owner and operator with online marketplaces operating in Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Ghana, Uganda, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. You don't need to be a Harvard Professor of global geography to know theses are vast countries with big populations, growing internet use, and urbanising labour forces.
The business also has fast-growing operations across Asia, China and Brazil, with an indisputable global reach across the digital jobs marketplace. Online education is another structural trend the business is looking to cash in on with its online education services (OES) division helping Australian adults find career related education.
The business would appear to have plenty of upside, but the downside is the valuation on around 28x analysts' estimates for financial year 2015's earnings per share.
Another fly in the ointment is the growth of US rival LinkedIn Corp, although the addressable global markets should be large enough to see both grow bigger.
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