Australia's Seek to buy Malaysia's Jobstreet for $524 mln

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 19 (Reuters) - Seek Ltd SEK.AX , which runs Australia's biggest online job ads site by number of clicks, on Wednesday said it will buy the remaining shares it does not own of Malaysian associate Jobstreet Corp Bhd JOBT.KL for 1.73 billion ringgit ($523.69 million).

Seek, which has been expanding to countries ranging from Singapore to China, plans to merge Jobstreet with fellow Southeast Asian recruitment site JobsDB, in which Seek bought the remaining interest less than a year ago.

"This transaction is a continuation of Seek's focus in Asia," Seek co-founder and Chief Executive Andrew Bassat said in a statement to the Australian stock exchange.

"In the near term, we expect revenue residing in Asia to comprise over 50 percent of Seek's overall revenue which further cements Seek as a global leader in online employment."

Seek said its latest purchase is subject to approval by regulators in Singapore as well as Jobstreet shareholders.

Trading of Jobstreet shares was suspended on Wednesday pending an announcement. The stock last closed at 2.68 ringgit.

Shares of Seek were 17 percent higher around 0130 GMT compared with the benchmark which was up about 0.4 percent.

($1 = 3.3035 Malaysian ringgit)

(Reporting by Yantoultra Ngui; Editing by Christopher Cushing)

((yantoultra.ngui@thomsonreuters.com)(+60323338036)(Reuters Messaging: yantoultra.ngui.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))

Keywords: SEEK JOBSTREET CORP/