REA Group Limited (ASX: REA) shares traded down 2.8% today after it has announced a new CEO. The broader market is also being knocked down by weak sentiment from US trading overnight.
What does REA Group do?
REA Group is the owner of Australia’s most popular real estate portal, realestate.com.au where vendors pay to advertise their property to a wide audience of potential buyers. Landlords can also advertise their property for lease on the site to potential tenants. It owns other property leading sites such as realcommercial.com.au too. It also has stakes in several other international property sites in the US, South East Asia and India.
REA Group’s new CEO
This morning, the property portal leader announced that Owen Wilson will replace Tracey Fellows as the new CEO.
You may have seen the news, Ms Fellows is stepping down from her current CEO role next month to become President of Global Digital Real Estate for News Corp (ASX: NWS).
Who is the new CEO?
If you Google ‘Owen Wilson’ it comes up with the American actor who starred in the ‘Night in the Museum’ movies and voiced Lightning McQueen in Cars. This isn’t the same person who’s becoming the new CEO.
REA Group’s Owen Wilson has been the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) since 2014 and has been responsible for all aspects of the finance portfolio including strategy, acquisitions and operations.
Chairman of REA Group Hamish McLennan said: “Owen has played a critical role in REA Group’s growth. He has a deep understand of the company, our long-term strategy and the importance of our customers in driving business success.”
Is REA Group a buy?
It is too early to say whether the new CEO will drive the next stage of REA Group’s growth. But the 20% fall in share price over the past six months makes REA Group more attractive.
Mr Wilson did state that his focus will be driving value for Australian and Asian customers. This could be important because Australia is seeing falling listings because of weaker property prices.
REA Group needs to extract more money per advertisement to make up for the declining volume. There’s a good chance REA Group can keep raising prices because of its brand power and leading market position.
However, it may be worth waiting until sentiment about the Australian property market stops deteriorating. Until then, it could be worth focusing on other proven shares in the below free report.
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