PE firms circle Deutsche Telekom internet portal

Kim Richters
08 July 2013

Tweet
Facebook
LinkedIn
Google plus
Send to

Scout24, the internet portal owned by Deutsche Telekom, has attracted the interest of PE firms looking to buy a minority stake in the company.

A 30% stake in Scout 24 is being prepared for sale, according to the Financial Times. Private equity firms including KKR and Apax are said to have taken interest.

A spokesman for Deutsche Telekom could not confirm the potential sale but told unquote" that Scout24 has been undergoing a strategic business review since December 2012.

Other potential bidders include Hellman & Friedman and Axel Springer Digital Classifieds, which both have experience within the digital media companies.

The possible share sale comes after Scout24's sale of its job-finding subsidiary Job24 to US career network CareerBuilder in 2011.

T-Online International bought Scout24 in 2004 from Beisheim Holding Schweiz. When T-Online merged with Deutsche Telekom, the firm became a subsidiary company of Deutsche Telekom.

Scout24 is Germany's biggest internet market company, owning six subdivisions including Autoscout24, a car-selling portal, and Immobilienscout24, a real estate selling platform.

KKR, Hellman & Friedman, Axel Springer and Apax were unavailable for comment.