Sweden-based private equity firm EQT is reportedly considering a bid for Adevinta’s Mobile.de, the leading auto marketplace in Germany.
EQT has held preliminary talks with Blackstone and Permira, which led the consortium that acquired Adevinta and took it private in June last year, the Financial Times (FT) reports, citing “people familiar with the matter.”
However, the newspaper added that the talks were at a preliminary stage. It noted that EQT, Permira and Blackstone had declined to comment on the story.
It had been thought that Adevinta was planning an IPO for Mobile.de, and earlier this month, the FT reported that it had selected investment banks Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan to work on listing plans. The newspaper said that the deal could value the company at around €10 billion ($11.7 billion), adding that the IPO would be one of the largest in Europe in recent years.
The IPO could still happen, but these discussions with EQT suggest that Adevinta’s owners are keeping their options open.
EQT and Adevinta are already doing business in Spain: In July this year, the former agreed to buy Adevinta’s Spain-based marketplaces, including auto marketplace Coches.net (not to be confused with Santander Bank’s Coches.com), job board InfoJobs and horizontal Milanuncios.
Financial terms were not disclosed, but Spain-based business newspaper Expansión reported at the time that the deal valued Adevinta Spain at around €2.0 billion, citing “industry sources.”
Adevinta was formed in 2018 as a spinoff from Schibsted and taken public a year later. At the time, it mainly operated in six core European markets: Germany, France, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands and Belgium. The company’s marketplaces included LeBonCoin in France and Marktplaats.nl in the Netherlands.
During the less than 18 months since it changed hands, Adevinta has exited joint ventures in Ireland (Distilled) and Austria (Willlhaben), as well as agreeing to exit Spain.
It was recently revealed that Adevinta had decided to shutter job board InfoJobs Italia at the end of this year.
The AIM Group has contacted Adevinta, Mobile.de, Blackstone, Permira and EQT for comment, and we will update this story if we receive a response.
