Independent advisor AmInvestment Bank said that rival job board SEEK Asia’s offer to buy Jobstreet’s (JOBST: MK) online job board for MYR 1.73 billion (USD 548.3 MILLION) in cash is ‘fair and reasonable’, reports astroawani.com.

In February, Australian job board SEEK announced that SEEK Asia, a majority owned subsidiary, had executed a share purchase agreement with co-investors to acquire 100% of Jobstreet. The completion of the transaction is still subject to regulatory approval in Singapore and also approval by Jobstreet shareholders. Pending approval, SEEK will hold a controlling share of 75.2%.

According to the investment bank, the proposed disposal would not be detrimental to minority shareholders: “…the proposed disposals represent an opportunity for the company to divest its online job portal business amidst the uncertainty caused by economic volatility and increasing threat from new entrants in the online job portal business; [namely] social media and aggregator websites.”

AmInvestment, however, warned: “… uncertainties caused by economic volatility remain, and this may result in subdued recruitment activity in the Southeast Asia region.”

Listed on the Malaysian stock exchange and founded in 1995, JobStreet claims to be the leading job site in Malaysia (responsible for 60% of revenue). JobStreet also operates in India, Indonesia, Japan, Hong Kong, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and more recently opened in Vietnam. The firm provides online recruitment and human resource management services. In 2012, the company had annual revenue of MYR 160.8 million (USD 52.4 million) and net profit of MYR 58.3 million (19.0 million).

In trading today, Jobstreet’s share price was MYR 2.4 (USD 0.64), a rise of +51.5% compared with a year ago. Based on its current share price, the company has a market value of MYR 1.5 billion (USD 474.2 million)