Private equity firms Apax Partners, EQT and Hellman & Friedman are among those considering a bid for the Spain-based marketplaces owned by Norway-based Adevinta, MarketScreener reports, citing “two people with knowledge of the situation.”
Potential bidders are reportedly working to prepare offers ahead of a July deadline imposed by Adevinta, but other bidders could still emerge, and a deal may not materialize.
Earlier this month, Lionel Assant, co-chief investment officer and head of Europe at Blackstone, said that the private equity fund would take a patient approach to the breakup of Adevinta due to a slowdown in European M&A activity amid ongoing political uncertainty.
Apax Partners, EQT, Hellman & Friedman and Adevinta all declined to comment when contacted by MarketScreener.
Adevinta’s Spain-based assets include Coches.net (the leading used-car marketplace in the country by monthly visits — not to be confused with Santander Group’s Coches.com), Fotocasa (the No. 2 real estate marketplace, behind Idealista), general goods marketplace Milanuncios and InfoJobs, the country’s leading job board.
Revenue at Adevinta Spain (as the company’s Spain-based businesses were collectively known at the time) stood at €56.0 million ($65.0 million U.S.) in Q4 2023, up 4.0% year on year. Adevinta was taken private by a consortium led by private equity firms Blackstone and Permira in May last year and has not published data on the financial performance of its Spain-based assets since then.
In November last year, El Nacional reported that preparations were underway at Adevinta’s Barcelona office for the sale of its Spain-based marketplaces.
Last month, Reuters reported that these assets could fetch up to €2.0 billion, while Spain-based business newspaper Expansión reported that investment banks Goldman Sachs and LionTree had been appointed as advisors to explore the possibility of a sale.
This potential disposal of the company’s Spain-based assets is part of a wider breakup plan by Adevinta’s owners. The company has already disposed of its 50% holding in Ireland-based marketplace operator Distilled and announced a deal to exit Austria-based Willhaben. It is also reportedly considering an IPO for Germany-based auto marketplace Mobile.de, perhaps the jewel in its crown.
Adevinta completed a debt refinancing deal last month, enabling it to pay a dividend.
