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.

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.

Sonia Oriol Segura (above) has left multinational marketplaces operator Adevinta and joined Trustap, where she will lead the growth and performance function.

Founded in 2017 and based in Ireland, Trustap describes itself as “an end-to-end transaction solution that seamlessly integrates payments, fulfilment and support into your marketplace or ecommerce store.”

Oriol Segura joined Adevinta in 2019 as M&A and senior strategy manager and was appointed recommerce finance and strategy online transactions lead in September 2022. She became head of online transactions, recommerce, Europe, in April 2024. According to her LinkedIn profile, she left the company in April this year.

Prior to joining Adevinta, Orio Segura was an investment banking associate at Citi for five years. She has degrees in business administration and law from Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona.

“After almost six years at Adevinta, full of learnings, challenges and great memories, I want to thank all the people who have supported me along the way — you know who you are,” she wrote in a LinkedIn post.

“A key milestone during this journey was being part of Adevinta’s transformation into the largest classifieds company in the world through the EBay Classifieds Group acquisition back in 2020–2021, allowing the company to expand its reach to 20 countries, 1 billlion people, more than 3 billion monthly visits and 20 No.1 market positions.”

“I also had the opportunity to help transform the business model by driving the online transactions strategy, which generated over €100 million [$116 million] in less than five years and has since become the company’s largest growth lever, accelerating Adevinta’s evolution from classifieds to transactional marketplaces.”

“To continue the exciting marketplace journey, I’ve recently joined Trustap to lead the growth and performance function. Trustap helps marketplaces and ecommerce platforms enable seamless, trusted transactions, enhancing the end-to-end transaction experience.”