What does newhome say about the merger?

October 2021

What does newhome say about the merger? Before the announced merger of the marketplaces of TX Group and Ringier , with the kind assistance of Mobiliar and General Atlantic, I conducted an interview with the Chairman of the Board of Directors of newhome.ch. After the bomb burst, I asked Jan Werkman more questions. homegate.ch is playing with fire with the announcement of Quality Partner. The annoyance is great, but the alternatives are small.

How is the acquisition of new shareholders going?

As is well known, NNH Holding AG and Next Property AG (NPAG) are the owners. NPAG unites the interests of over 500 players in the real estate industry and decides for itself how to expand its shareholder base. Accordingly, the acquisition (acquisition of shareholders) is the task of Next Property AG with managing director Mario Facchinetti. At newhome.ch, the NPAG shareholders are treated as business customers who enjoy certain preferential conditions.

Why didn’t newhome.ch participate directly in eMonitor?

A direct investment does not make sense as there is no intention to merge. newhome sees itself as the hub of an evolving ecosystem and not as an orchestrator or investor. The cantonal banks involved in emonitor AG intend to ensure close cooperation between newhome and emonitor and thereby gradually expand the real estate and housing ecosystem. With a view to this expansion, the three cantonal banks (SGKB, GKB, LUKB) want to attract even more cantonal banks to participate and thus support this commitment more broadly.

The long-time CEO leaves the portal, giving the impression that he did not leave voluntarily (there is no message on the homepage with the thanks of the Board of Directors)

Jean-Pierre Valenghi is leaving newhome at the end of 2021. The Board of Directors has granted his wish to be able to devote himself to his family on a sabbatical of several months from August. Official information or further information on his successor will be provided by newhome in due course. newhome will continue to be managed by the second Co-CEO.

How does the new board of directors intend to position the portal?

The strategic positioning is in development and not yet completed. newhome will provide information here in due course.

What should the ecosystem around newhome.ch look like?

newhome sees itself as the hub of an ecosystem in the real estate and housing sector. Future strategic alliances and collaborations will be evaluated depending on the situation in consultation with the newhome shareholders.

What does newhome.ch say about the merger? So much for the interview from mid-August. In the meantime the situation has changed fundamentally. I wanted to know from Jan Werkmann whether he would like to make a statement on the merger of the Ringier and TX Group marketplaces. I was also interested in whether the announcement affected the strategy of newhome.ch and whether the speed at which measures were implemented changed? Jan replied: We are not making a statement about the joint venture. Our strategic alignment is being revised in order to do justice to the current market situation even better.

In old documents I found the vision defined earlier, that with newhome.ch, Switzerland’s dominant real estate marketplace should be created within 18 to 24 months. The data sovereignty should lie with the owners, service providers. The aim is to cooperate with the French-speaking Swiss marketplace immobilier.ch.

What has been achieved? newhome.ch is far from being the dominant marketplace. The cooperation with immobilier.ch did not materialize. According to market statements, the cantonal banks in Western Switzerland are said to have said goodbye to the shareholders of newhome.ch. This information cannot be verified because the logos of the shareholders are no longer shown on newhome.ch. The previous co-CEO has not (yet) been confirmed as sole managing director. What does newhome say about the merger?

“Find instead of search”

The Handelszeitung mentions that newhome.ch has adopted a new strategy. At least this statement contradicts the information given by the Chairman of the Board of Directors in my interview. Above all, according to the Handelszeitung, newhome.ch wants to score with the sentence: Find instead of search. This suggests that newhome.ch has the largest selection of properties. This is definitely not the case. The author of the article in the Handelszeitung sees the greatest advantage of the cooperation between real estate agents and cantonal banks in the fact that the banks “know” whether the money is available for a purchase (and less for a rent). In this way, the potential buyers could be “qualified”. Here, too, it is assumed that only the cantonal banks grant mortgages. But this is not the case. The competition between banks and insurance companies is raging and intermediaries such as Moneypark are playing an increasingly important role. We owners all want the same thing: the lowest possible mortgage interest.

homegate.ch ensures red heads again

homegate.ch has created a new award with “homegate.ch Quality Partner”. According to homegate.ch , the portal wants to evaluate the quality of a property (and thus of a provider) according to uniform criteria. The result should be conveyed transparently to homegate.ch customers. homegate.ch attaches great importance to the fact that the seal cannot be bought. Rather, criteria known in advance must be met.

The announcement causes great excitement on LinkedIn. Coupled with the call to rally together behind newhome.ch. Well, in the general outrage about the merger of the marketplaces, homegate.ch is certainly not acting wisely. Above all, they seem to have forgotten that the “homeday” project triggered Next Property back then. So why break even more dishes if you don’t have to? Are these the first signs of the coming monopoly?

What does newhome say about the merger? The statements are currently very vague. Let’s just wait for the long-promised deeds.