REA : appoints Sam Boer as Smartline CEO

Media Release

24 July 2018

REA Group appoints Sam Boer as Smartline CEO

REA Group today announced the appointment of Sam Boer as CEO of Smartline, one of Australia's premier mortgage broking franchise groups.

Mr Boer joins Smartline from Commonwealth Bank Australia, where he served as General Manager Third Party Banking in the Retail Banking Sector.

REA group acquired an 80.3% stake in Smartline in June 2017, strengthening its home loan offering, which also includes realestate.com.au Home Loans and realestate.com.au Home Loans broking.

Smartline is settling more than $6 billion in loans annually with a total loan-book of approximately $25 billion, which gives the REA Group Financial Services segment greater scale and capability for the long term.

Announcing Mr Boer's appointment, REA Group Executive General Manager - Financial Services, Andrew Russell, commented: "Sam brings a wealth of experience to this role and has a long history of leading high performing teams to deliver value for customers. His recent experience at CBA and standing in the industry make him perfectly placed to lead Smartline into a new era of broking and finance.

"The Smartline business is an integral part of the REA Group and I look forward to working closely with Sam to drive our Financial Services strategy," said Mr Russell.

Commenting on Mr Boer's appointment, Smartline Executive Director and co-founder, Chris Acret, commented: "We're delighted that Sam will be joining Smartline to lead the business into our next chapter of growth with REA.

"We've known Sam a long time, he has strong industry experience and we are very comfortable that he will be a good fit for the business and our people," said Mr Acret.

Mr Boer said: "I have known and admired the Smartline team for many years and am delighted to have been selected to lead the business in its next exciting stage with REA Group.

"I look forward to meeting up with the Franchisees, staff and all other stakeholders that support this quality business and working with them to achieve further success in the years ahead," said Mr Boer.

Mr Boer joins Smartline on Monday 14 August and will be based at the North Ryde (Sydney) office.

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For more information:

Phil Mahoney, PR & Communications Manager [phone]

About REA Group Limited: (www.rea-group.com): REA Group Limited ACN 068 349 066 (ASX:REA) ("REA Group") is a multinational digital advertising business specialising in property. REA operates Australia's leading residential and commercial property websites, realestate.com.au andrealcommercial.com.au, spacely.com, Chinese property site myfun.com and a number of property portals in Asia via its ownership of iProperty Group. REA also owns Smartline Home Loans Pty Ltd, an Australian mortgage broking franchise groupe and hold a significant shareholding in property websites Move, Inc. in the US and PropTiger, Makaan.com and Housing.com in India.

About Sam Boer

Sam Boer has 29 years financial services experience, starting his banking career with ANZ in 1988, before joining CBA in 2004. He is passionate about leading and developing high performing teams and working collaboratively with stakeholders to find innovative solutions to complex business challenges.

Most recently, Mr Boer led CBA's Home Buying distribution business for Third Party Mortgage Brokers throughout Australia. Together with internal and external stakeholders Mr Boer has been pivotal in beginning to re-shape the Third-Party industry to employ a greater focus on consumer outcomes and industry professionalisation in response to regulatory, political and social expectations.

Mr Boer also has an Executive MBA, completed at the Australian Graduate School of Management in 2004.