StepStone buys jobs portal group

The international jobs portal website owned by Denis O’Brien and Leslie Buckley, Saongroup, has been acquired by StepStone for an undisclosed figure.

The company, best known in Ireland for its Irishjobs.ie website, was linked with a takeover back in September when a valuation of €40m was placed on the company’s job portals spread across 16 countries, including groups sites in the UK, Luxembourg and 10 Central American markets, including Jamaica, Costa Rica and Guatemala. However, the company’s Chinese and Myanmar-based assets are not transferring to the new owners.

The Chinese and Myanmar assets will be formed into a new company, rebranded as ChinaHR and will be the focus of the company going forward, according to Saongroup chairman, Leslie Buckley.

“Our focus going forward is now on the Chinese operation, in which we have invested heavily over the past six years and which has seen very significant growth.”

StepStone is owned by the Alex Springer which controls nearly 25% of Germany’s daily papers.

Irishjobs.ie was founded in 1995 by John Feeley and acquired by Mr O’Brien and Mr Buckley in 1999.