BUSINESSMAN DENIS O'Brien's online recruiter, Saongroup.com, has boosted its presence in Africa with the purchase of an operation on the island of Mauritius.

The company said yesterday that it has bought Mauritius-based recruitment company Myjob.mu for an undisclosed sum.

According to Saongroup, the business is the leading recruitment website on Mauritius, which has a population of 1.2 million people and internet penetration of 15 per cent.

Saongroup chief executive Ciaran McCooey said the deal was a "strategic move" for its southern Africa division. Last year, the company bought South African recruitment website Pnet.

"Not only is Mauritius a growing economy with strong financial and telecommunications sectors and declining unemployment, it also allows our existing South African clients with businesses in Mauritius to avail of the same service from one source," Mr McCooey said in a statement.

Mr O'Brien, whose interests include a stake in Independent News Media as well as telecoms, radio and aviation leasing in a number of countries, controls Saongroup, which has operations in different parts of the globe.

Last month, it bought localjobsgroup.co.uk in Britain, a move that doubled the number of recruiting websites its operates in that country.

Saongroup also owns dating websites maybefriends and singleinthecity, which it bought earlier this year in two deals.

The company said yesterday that revenues grew 73 per cent last year.