SAONGROUP.COM, the international online recruitment business controlled by Denis O'Brien, has doubled its number of UK regional websites with its latest acquisition.
The group has bought localjobsgroup.co.uk for an undisclosed sum.
The company is based in southeast England and runs approximately 45 websites.
The development means the group now has 90 regional websites throughout the UK, where it operates under myjobgroup.co.uk, which it bought in May 2007.
"The acquisition represents a milestone for Saongroup.com's international expansion drive, as we fill the last remaining regional gap in the UK online recruitment market," said Ciarán McCooey, chief executive of Saongroup.com.
"Saongroup.com's UK business has seen a 350 per cent growth in jobseeker traffic in the year following our expansion into this market."
The acquisition brings the total number of the group's employees in the UK to 97. While the acquisition doubles the group's number of UK websites, the development does not have a similar effect on its revenues.
Mr McCooey said the group had a strong base in the UK and Ireland but was mostly looking for opportunities in developing markets. There were a number of potential deals in the pipeline, he said, but he would not disclose the details.
Saongroup.com operates in China, South Africa, India, the Caribbean and Dubai as well as the US and Europe. Approximately 1,200 of its 1,500 staff are in China.
Earlier this year the chairman of the group, Leslie Buckley, who owns 25 per cent of the business, told The Irish Times that it is spending €25 million on investments in China and India. Yesterday Mr McCooey said the global economic downturn since then had affected business but less than was the case in the off-line world.
"People are obviously recruiting less, but because online recruitment is the most cost effective way of recruiting people, it is less affected . . . We are still growing tremendously and we're still in line for the sort of numbers we mentioned in January.
"It's slower. It's a tougher market out there. But we are still seeing double-digit growth in Ireland."
Worldwide, the group is experiencing 50 per cent growth.
Saongroup.com posted revenues of €28 million in 2007, up from €16 million the previous year.
Its Irish business, Irishjobs.ie, accounted for approximately 53 per cent of revenue in 2007, a figure that's expected to decline to approximately 45 per cent this year.
