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.

CEO Tomy Schoenfeld informed employees that the deal could close by then.

Four major foreign investment funds — Blackstone, Francisco Partners, Apax, and Warburg Pincus — are competing, with Blackstone seen as the frontrunner. A fifth fund, CVC, is reportedly preparing to submit a bid. Barclays and Citi are managing the transaction.

Financials obtained by CalcalisTech revealed sustained growth for Yad2, with 2024 revenue at €62.4 million and a 46% adjusted EBITDA margin.

In 2025, revenue is expected to reach €83 million with adjusted EBITDA of €37 million, maintaining a similar margin.

Projected revenue for 2026 stands at €93.7 million, and adjusted EBITDA at €44.4 million, with an estimated 21% annual growth rate in operating cash flow from 2022 to 2026. The company noted that its performance could have been stronger without the ongoing war in Israel.

Growth drivers include increased ad sales, user conversion to paying ads, and traffic growth.

Yad2.co.il reportedly attracts 4 million unique visitors per month (Similarweb put its September traffic at 9.3 million), listing around 590,000 new ads monthly. The majority of revenue is from real estate (56%), primarily agencies and developers, followed by automotive (27%) and job listings via its subsidiary Drushim.co.il (15%).

Yad2 is operated by Aviv Group, which is based in Germany and was acquired by KKR as part of an $11 billion deal with Axel Springer. Its competitors include Facebook Marketplace, Agora.co.il and Homeless.co.il.

The AIM Group reached out to Yad2 for confirmation of the acquisition reports, but had not received a response by the time the story was published.

South Korea-based marketplace horizontal Daangn.com received a positive response to a four-week experiment of a new feature enabling sellers to upload photos for automatic creation of multiple listings, titles, and descriptions.

According to a news release (translated by Google), this positive feedback paved the way for Daangn to roll out its new ‘multiple item posting’ function on a full scale.

Daangn operates on a cost-per-click business model, allowing sellers to list and sell multiple items simultaneously. With this feature, users can upload up to 30 photos of various products; AI then analyzes the images, categorizes them into individual posts, and automatically creates sales posts tailored to each item.

During pre-launch testing, users responded with comments like, “It’s incredibly convenient because I can post all at once, so I don’t have to repeat the same tasks,” and “I just uploaded photos, and it automatically categorized them and wrote sales posts. It’s the best.”

This multiple listing feature builds on the AI image reader introduced earlier this year and an AI pricing tool unveiled mid-year. Additionally, the marketplace continues to enhance its fraud protection with a new AI system.

The company stated, “This feature has drastically reduced the time it takes to post multiple sales posts, allowing users to trade more efficiently. We will continue to actively utilize AI technology to make the second-hand trading process more convenient and enjoyable.”

They also emphasized their ongoing commitment: “We will continue to actively adopt AI technology to make the second-hand trading process more convenient and enjoyable.”

Founded in 2015 and operated by Danggeun Market Inc., Daangn saw 5.5 million visits in September, ranking second behind competitor Bunjang, which had 6.7 million monthly visits, according to Similarweb data.

According to a news release (translated by Google), the AI assistant saves sellers time by handling common text and voice-call queries like “what is the final price?” or “is there a discount available?”

Designed with local bargaining culture in mind, the assistant answers frequently asked questions 24/7, negotiates within a set price range, and schedules visits.

Sellers can also update listing details — such as price, title, or product description — by texting the bot. The assistant provides daily reports on ad performance and engagement and suggests ways to improve results.

The assistant’s effectiveness depends on how well sellers respond to its questions based on registered information. It also uses online data to answer general questions like product comparisons and car acceleration.

Users can activate the assistant for multiple categories, including recruitment, by choosing between “chat with sales assistant” or “chat and phone call with sales assistant” modes for a fee.

Divar explained, “As Amazon and Facebook use AI to optimize user experience, Divar combines global innovations with an understanding of Iranian users’ needs and culture. This product is part of Divar’s vision to become a smart trading platform that simplifies daily life and drives significant future changes.”

Owned by Hezardastan Group, Divar.ir is Iran’s largest marketplace horizontal with over 46 million registered unique phone numbers. The marketplace has previously introduced an AI shopping assistant and reduced listing tariffs under dynamic pricing model.

This feature was launched following a pre-launch survey by Yahoo Japan Flea Market, part of LY Corp.’s re-use segment, where 33% of respondents were unsure about pricing and many showed interest in an image-based price suggestion tool, according to company news release (translated by Google).

The AI, powered by Google’s generative Gemini model, analyzes the photo to automatically generate product titles, descriptions, conditions, and price suggestions, simplifying and speeding up the listing process.

Users can send photos through the official LINE account for AI analysis, which estimates market prices and category information.

This new functionality upgrades the prior AI-assisted listing tools and aims to enhance user convenience compared to competitors like Mercari.

Yahoo Japan Flea Market has been downloaded over 30 million times, surpassing Mercari Japan’s 23 million monthly active users for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2025.

LY Corp. generated JPY12.4 billion ($83.9 million) in revenue from its re-use segment, covering Yahoo Japan Auction, Yahoo Japan Flea Market, ZozoUsed and Beenos, for the first quarter ended June.

AI scans code before it’s published, increasing the efficiency of threat prevention, speeding up such checks fivefold, Avito said. While a cybersecurity specialist would need almost six months to sift through 50,000 threat scanner alerts, AI needs only 6-8 hours, according to Avito.

The system detects 99% of all threats and instantly removes them from the code. This saves up to 25% of the on-duty cybersecurity specialist’s time, allowing them to focus on more complex tasks. The company plans to integrate AI into other areas of cybersecurity, such as risk assessment and threat modeling.

Avito’s system automatically analyzes code for sensitive data that could be exploited by attackers. Its proprietary A-Vibe model, trained on thousands of vulnerabilities, checks the code and identifies actual threats. The system works with the local DeepSecrets scanner, available on GitHub. It finds 99 out of 100 vulnerabilities, taking into account the code’s context. To ensure reliability, a multi-layered approach with additional algorithms and random checks by engineers is used, eliminating human error and making the system more effective than manual verification, said Andrey Usenok, head of information security at Avito.

“This technology fundamentally changes the allocation of resources—instead of spending hours checking false positives, our specialists can focus on architectural decisions and strategic defense planning. In the future, generative AI will allow us to model attack chains that haven’t yet occurred, predict critical vulnerability combinations, and create defenses that evolve in real time along with the threat landscape,” Usenok said.

Avito plans to expand the use of AI to other areas of cybersecurity, including automated risk assessment and threat modeling. This will enable code changes to be analyzed for new risks and potential attack vectors to be identified even at the design stage, before the code is written.

The update will address one of the app’s main challenges: difficulty in locating specific products among the marketplace’s vast array of offerings and poor performance of the app’s personalization features used mainly for product recommendations.

The new version is to improve the shopping experience by streamlining product discovery, making product recommendations more relevant, and the interface more user-friendly.

The redesigned application will feature a refreshed home page and new elements aimed at making it easier to find products. Users will be able to add items directly to their cart or favorites list from the home page. The app will also display campaigns and promotions differently, incorporating video ads and brand logo carousels, according to a report on Cashless.pl.

In H1 2025, Allegro saw revenue rise 8.2% year on year to PLN5.6 billion ($1.5 billion), while adjusted EBITDA increased by 13.3% to PLN1.7 billion.

The legislation aims to integrate Ukraine into international tax transparency systems through automatic information exchange on platform-generated income.

The bill builds on earlier government proposals from April that introduced a 10% tax rate (5% personal income tax plus 5% military levy) for digital platform earnings. While the committee increased the tax-free threshold to €2,000 ($2,325) annually and made the law’s enforcement conditional on signing international agreements, critics warn of practical issues.

MP Nina Yuzhankina pointed out that platforms would act as tax agents, automatically withholding taxes even on one-time sales of used items. Unlike EU countries where the €2,000 limit applies per platform, Ukraine would aggregate income across all platforms, she said in a report for FaceNews.ua.

She also added in the report that the refund process raises concerns as taxes would be deducted first, requiring sellers to file through electronic tax cabinets to potentially recover payments if their annual sales fall below the threshold.

Additionally, Yuzhankina argues that the implementation ignores EU directive nuances, lacks transitional periods, and doesn’t account for losses on resold items.

The new tax regime will apply to real estate leasing, personal services, sale of goods, and vehicle rentals. The bill now advances to full parliamentary consideration.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, Oct. 22, Dubizzle said that it had received “strong engagement and interest from investors” but had elected to postpone the IPO to “assess optimal timing for the offering in the future.” The company had announced the timing of the IPO earlier this month, making for a rapid volte-face.

The company added that it “remains focused on executing its strategy of growing its highly profitable UAE business and expanding its footprint in Saudi Arabia.”

Dubizzle, which operates marketplace horizontal Dubizzle and property site Bayut.com, had planned to offer 30.3% of its share capital — about 1.2 billion shares — with the listing scheduled for Nov. 6. The company’s largest shareholder, Prosus N.V. — which holds its stake through subsidiary OLX B.V. — had committed to invest $100 million as part of the offering.

In its prospectus, Dubizzle stated that revenue rose by 26.6% year on year (y-o-y) to $133 million in the first half of 2025. It reported full-year revenue of $222 million in 2024, up by 0.5% from $221 million in 2023 and 12.3% from $198 million in 2022.

The company remains loss-making, but its net loss has narrowed significantly in recent years — from $127 million in 2022 to $62.3 million in 2024. In H1 2025, it recorded a net loss of just $8.9 million. However, “The statutory accounts include businesses that were discontinued and divested / sold,” Dubizzle Group told the AIM Group. “When excluding the discontinued / divested operations, Dubizzle group has been profitable since 2022  on a consolidated basis.”

Dubizzle reported a 46% adjusted EBITDA margin for the first half of 2025, up from 31% in the year-earlier period.

The delay follows a series of mixed IPO performances on the Dubai Financial Market and Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange. For example, shares in recently listed construction company Alec Holdings are currently trading 8% below their listing price.

Nikita Zakharov, Head of Fashion at Avito, estimated that 58% of shoppers purchased resale fashion items at least once last year. Among millennials and generation Z, this figure rises to 68%, he said, noting that fashion is one of the leading categories on Avito, accounting for 27% of all transactions and attracting over 27 million monthly visitors.

Premium brands are proving particularly popular in the resale market. Their share of the fashion category on Avito exceeds 15%, which is almost twice the luxury market share (8%) of the overall Russian clothing market. Young people aged 18-24 are quite prominent in second-hand purchases of clothing, electronics and furniture.

The changes in their shopping habits are driven by environmental concerns, and bargain hunting for rare and unique items that can be found among second-hand goods, Zakharov said. The most-in-demand are items with cultural and historic value, Zakharov observed, like those from the Soviet era. The resale of vintage items is a good entry point into business, he opined.

Almost half of Russians polled by Avito said they buy goods on resale sites, and one in five regularly sell unwanted items online. Every second respondent have listed items for sale or purchased them from private individuals at least once. “Most often, users sell clothing, shoes, electronics, and children’s goods. For some, it’s a way to make money, for others, it’s a way to free up space,” observed Alexey Li, commercial director of Avito Goods.

In 2024, 41% of sellers earned up to RUB10,000 ($123) 8% earned between RUB10,000 and RUB30,000, and 5% earned more than RUB30,000. The average income among those who indicated a precise amount was RUB11,000.

Breakdown Protection is an optional service that covers buyers in the event of a breakdown in a used electronic device or household appliance purchased on the marketplace.

“In the event of a breakdown, your device will be repaired free of charge or 100% refunded if it cannot be repaired,” according to the company’s website. (all quotes translated from French using Google)

“Whether it’s a smartphone, a computer or a home appliance, Breakdown Protection allows you to secure your used purchases. At the time of purchase, simply add the paid option by choosing the duration of your choice (3, 6, or 12 months). Protection is activated as soon as your purchase is approved for compliance upon receipt,” according to LBC’s website.

“If your item can’t be repaired, you’ll be refunded its full value… Our repair partners are carefully selected for their expertise… No fees to send your item to a repair center.”

Martin Bethonneau, chief product officer at Adevinta — LBC’s parent company — wrote in a LinkedIn post: “Today, nearly one in two French people give up buying a second-hand non-refurbished good for fear of breaking down!”

“With Breakdown Protection, no more stress, make way for peace of mind… a washing machine, a smartphone, a computer or a vacuum cleaner: In the event of a breakdown, the buyer is refunded 100% with our partner Neat Protect.”

The latter, which was founded in 2022 and is headquartered in Paris, describes itself as “the leading embedded insurance Insurtech providing white label and tailor-made insurance solutions to merchants across Europe.”

“From now on, before buying a new item, there is bound to be the secondhand item of your dreams on LeBonCoin… Cheaper and protected in the event of a breakdown,” Bethonneau concluded.

PayPo is a Polish fintech specialising in deferred-payment services. PayU, meanwhile, is a broader payments-service provider that enables merchants to offer many online payment methods and has integrated PayPo’s deferred payments to its platform in Poland.

The new feature on OLX.pl covers both new and used items across popular categories such as electronics, fashion, home and garden, sports, and children’s goods.

It is already available to verified sellers using OLX Delivery, following a one-time PayU verification, and applies to purchases above PLN200 ($55). The move is expected to boost sales conversions for sellers and attract more buyers ahead of Black Friday, the holiday season, and winter sales, according to a report on PRNews.pl.

OLX’s cooperation with PayU began in 2022, when the horizontal first introduced PayU as a payment operator and announced plans to integrate PayPo as an additional deferred payment option within its OLX Payments service.

OLX.pl is a dominant general classifieds site in Poland. In September, it received a total of 79.2 million visits to its web and mobile sites, according to SimilarWeb.

The promotion applies to shipments handled through Allegro Delivery partners — including Allegro One Box and One Punkt, Orlen Paczka, DHL Box 24/7, and DPD Pickup — but does not include courier deliveries or InPost services, as InPost is not part of the Allegro Delivery alliance, according to a report on Cashless.pl

Allegro said in the report that it would automatically reduce delivery fees across all sellers, aiming to make offers more attractive during Black Week and the Christmas shopping rush. The campaign mainly targets occasional shoppers who don’t use the Smart! subscription, though Smart! members can also benefit when their orders don’t meet the free-shipping threshold.

Meanwhile, InPost is also adjusting its pricing for Allegro sellers — the cost of sending parcels to parcel lockers will drop from PLN11.5 PLN ($3.1) to PLN10.9 ($3) starting November 1.

In H1 2025, Allegro saw revenue rise 8.2% year on year to PLN5.6 billion ($1.5 billion), while adjusted EBITDA increased by 13.3% to PLN1.7 billion.

Dubizzle noted that Adjusted EBITDA “adjusts for the effects of any non-routine, non-operational one-of items. These include impairment losses on financial assets, fundraising costs, foreign exchange losses, restructuring-related costs and rebranding costs. It also excludes the effects of cash-settled share-based payments.”

The company wrote in a LinkedIn post that this performance was “a testament to our strong fundamentals, resilient UAE business and continued focus on sustainable growth… Our platforms, [marketplace horizontal] Dubizzle and Bayut.com, continue to lead the UAE’s real estate and autos classifieds markets, driving value for millions of users and partners every day.”

Group revenue rose by 26.6% year on year (y-o-y) to $133 million in the first half of 2025, reflecting both organic growth in the UAE and expansion in Saudi Arabia, the company said. Dubizzle reported full-year revenue of $222 million in 2024, up by 0.5% from $221 million in 2023 and 12.3% from $198 million in 2022.

The UAE accounted for 89% of adjusted revenue in H1 2025. During this period, this market delivered $105 million in adjusted revenue, $48 million in adjusted EBITDA and $43 million in adjusted net profit.

“Adjusted revenue corresponds to revenue from contracts with customers adjusted for the cost of motor vehicle inventories,” the company said.

Dubizzle Group remains loss-making, but its net loss has narrowed significantly in recent years — from $127 million in 2022 to $62.3 million in 2024. In H1 2025, it recorded a net loss of just $8.9 million.

The company noted that “These historical losses were primarily due to non-routine, non-operational items, which mainly include share-based payment expense… impairment losses on financial assets related to businesses disposed… and deferred tax arising upon enactment of UAE corporate tax law on goodwill and intangible assets.”

“Excluding these non-routine, non-operational costs, the Group has been profitable on a Group adjusted net profit basis in 2023, 2024 H1 and 2025,” it added.

“Being an asset-light company, growth now trickles down into solid EBITDA,” said CEO Imran Ali Khan.

While the UAE remains its backbone, Dubizzle is scaling quickly in Saudi Arabia, a market Khan described as “growing fantastically.”

The company noted that “Substantial operational resources have already been deployed in KSA, including fully operational offices in Riyadh and Jeddah, a team of over 600 employees as of June 2025 and the implementation of the Group’s scalable technology stack. This includes more than 10 apps and market intelligence platforms, geospatial mapping, neighbourhood-level penetration strategies, agency census data and localised product and pricing models, all supported by over a decade of technology R&D.”

The company said its marketplaces had an average of 18 million monthly active users in H1 2025, with an average of 54 million monthly sessions during this period.

Subscription to Dubizzle Group’s IPO will open on Oct. 23 — also the date on which its price range will be announced — with the company set to list on the Dubai Financial Market on Nov. 6. The final offer price will be announced on Oct. 30. The group intends to offer 30.3% of its share capital, equivalent to 1.2 billion shares.

The company’s largest shareholder, Prosus N.V. — which holds its stake through subsidiary OLX B.V. — has committed to invest $100 million as part of the offering.

Dubizzle Group rival Property Finder raised $250 million in debt financing earlier this month.

Update Oct. 23: The section of the Dubizzle website and the Dubizzle LinkedIn post referred to in this brief have since been taken down. This followed the company’s announcement that it had decided to indefinitely delay its IPO.

OLX.kz is the No. 2 classifieds business in the country by overall traffic, with 9.2 million total monthly visits as of September, according to Similarweb. However, it’s likely No. 1 in general goods. Local fintech and e-commerce giant Kaspi holds the No. 1 position in the classifieds market due to its strong automotive and real estate verticals.

Veon Group is based in Dubai and primarily operates across CIS markets. It’s listed on the Nasdaq under the ticker (VEON). It owns locally popular mobile services brand Beeline. The acquisition is in line with the company’s goal of expanding its digital portfolio across the region.

“Beeline Kazakhstan is a leader in digital innovation for consumers and enterprises, and the acquisition of OLX KZ represents a significant opportunity to further enhance the digital operator’s offering to customers,” said Kaan Terzioglu, Veon Group CEO. “I am happy to welcome the OLX KZ team, who have successfully developed a consistently profitable, market-leading business in Kazakhstan, to the Veon family and look forward to the opportunities that this new digital vertical will create for the group’s digital operator strategy.”

“I am excited about the potential synergies we see from integrating Kazakhstan’s leading online classifieds business into Beeline Kazakhstan’s digital services ecosystem. OLX KZ will make it possible for us to offer customers a more comprehensive and better-integrated set of digital services, while also reaching more users with one of the market-leading businesses,” said Evgeniy Nastradin, CEO of Beeline Kazakhstan.

“We’re proud of what our team in Kazakhstan has built with OLX KZ — a trusted, scaled marketplace serving millions of Kazakhs every day,” commented Christian Gisy, CEO of Prosus-owned OLX Group. “This transaction aligns with our strategy to focus on core categories and key markets, while placing OLX KZ with an owner that brings deep local reach and a powerful digital ecosystem.”

Beeline Kazakhstan’s acquisition of OLX.kz is subject to regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions. OLX Group will provide certain IT-related support services to OLX.kz over a transitional period. The transaction is expected to close by the first quarter of 2026.

Beeline Kazakhstan serves 11 million local customers with mobile connectivity and 2 million with fixed internet services. Over the past five years, leveraging its expertise in digital solution development, Beeline has created an ecosystem of 60 internal and external products. Originally a Russia-based business, Veon serves nearly 160 million customers across five markets in Europe and Asia after exiting Russia in 2023.