KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 5): REV Asia Bhd (formerly known as Catcha Media Bhd) plans to buy two popular Chinese social news and content websites from Netnion Technology Sdn Bhd for a maximum purchase consideration of RM5 million.

Should the deal go through, this will mark REV Asia's first step into the online Chinese audience segment, presenting it with an opportunity to dominate the Chinese social news and content vertical, it said.

"It also adds to a growing audience that REV Asia Group already has, and takes us a step closer in its quest of becoming Malaysia's No. 1 digital media group," the group told stock exchange today.

The country's leading digital media groups said its 70%-owned subsidiary REV Digital Sdn Bhd has entered into an business assets sale and purchase agreement (SPA) with Netnion Technology for the proposed acquisition of Viralcham and Rojaklah, subject to the conditions precedent set out in the SPA.

Both Viralcham and Rojaklah are two of the country's news and information resource for trending and social news in the lifestyle industry and entertainment related content.

Viralcham and Rojaklah are consistently placed in the Top 20 websites visited by Malaysian internet users according to internet analytics provider, ComScore.

Citing Google Analytics' reports, REV Asia said the websites have a total of about 18.4 million pageviews and 3.6 million unique visitors in June, capturing a massive 53% of the total Chinese population in Malaysia.

Apart from that, both websites have a SME content offering within the Klang Valley.

With the injection of REV Asia's operational structure, the group said these offerings will be expanded to key market centres in Malaysia.

In addition, a full suite of sponsored content offerings will also be developed for multinational corporate brands, to which the seller's sales team previously did not have access, it added.

Both websites posted a profit of RM227,212 with a revenue of RM915,260 for the financial year ended May 31, 2016.

Commenting on this, REV Asia general manager Voon Tze Khay said Viralcham and Rojaklah are two of the country's fastest growing websites and have tremendous opportunity to grow further within the REV Asia group's businesses.

"We are very excited to work conjointly with the Viralcham and Rojaklah team to take this already amazing business to the next level," he said.

Voon is also the managing director of REV Asia Holdings Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary of REV Asia.

Meanwhile, Viralcham and Rojaklah co-founder and chief operating officer Winston Robertson believed that with the SME content offering and REV Asia's multinational corporation (MNC) sponsored content offerings, both companies will be able to reach a greater heights.

"Since our inception we have seen tremendous growth and we look forward to continuing this amazing growth with REV Asia Group," he said.

REV Asia targets to complete the deal by the third quarter of 2016.

Shares in REV Asia closed down three sen or 6.14% at 54 sen, for a market value of RM72.03 million.