Australian partner buys more stake in bdjobs.com

Local investors of Bangladesh's leading career management site—bdjobs.com—have sold another 10 percent stake for Tk 30 crore to its Australian partner SEEK International.

SEEK has now become the leading shareholder with 35 percent stakes while Fahim Mashroor, one of the founders of the site and CEO, holds 33 percent. Seven others own the remaining shares.

SEEK purchased 25 percent of shares of bdjobs in 2015, when the company was valued at Tk 150 crore, said Mashroor, who owns another leading e-commerce site, ajkerdeal.com.

This time it is valued at Tk 300 crore as it generates profits every year, he said.

Established in 2000, bdjobs started making profits after three years. Last year, it made a profit of around Tk 15 crore, which was Tk 13.50 crore in 2016.

Mashroor said he has plans to take in more foreign investments in ajkerdeal.com and a venture capital company has already injected funds into it. There will be no more changes to the board or management team of bdjobs.com, said Mashroor, a director of the Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services.

SEEK owns leading job boards in Australia, New Zealand, China, Brazil, Mexico, Africa and across South East Asia, alongside exposure to 400 crore people and relationships with over 8 lakh hirers and 18 lakh candidates.

SEEK's investments in different countries and worldwide experience will help bdjobs follow the best global practices and help it to grow further, said Mashroor.

This deal will also help local jobseekers get new opportunities in white collar jobs abroad, he added.

Founded in Melbourne in 1997, SEEK is listed on Australian Securities Exchange among the top 100 companies employing over 6,000 people and with a market capitalisation close to AU $6 billion. Till date, the Bangladeshi job portal—bdjobs.com—saw appointments against 10 lakh job advertisements posted on it.

The site gets around three lakh visitors every day, posts roughly 35,000 job advertisements every year on an average and has become one of 10 top-viewed Bangladeshi sites.

It has around 150 employees. The company says to have brought in about $8 million in foreign direct investment and forwarded Tk 35 crore to the national exchequer as tax and value added tax in its 18 years' journey.