Permira makes EUR 1.9bn investment in Adevinta

The share of the company held by eBay will decrease from 44% to 34% as part of the deal.

Dipan Patel, partner and head of consumer at Permira, is to join Adevinta's board of directors.

Permira has also been granted a 30-day option to purchase around 10 million additional shares at the same price, corresponding to a potential consideration of USD 180m. If exercised, eBay's stake in Adevinta would decrease to 33%.

The deal is expected to close in Q4 2021.

Permira is currently deploying equity via vehicles including Permira VII, which held a final close in October 2019 on EUR 11bn. The fund generally deploys equity tickets of EUR 250m-1bn, targeting businesses with enterprise values of EUR 500m-3bn.

Permira registered its eighth flagship fund in May 2021 with a target of $15bn, according to Unquote Data.

Adevinta agreed to acquire eBay Classifieds in July 2020 and received approval from the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) for the deal in June 2021. The transaction will see eBay receive 540 million shares in Adevinta. Adevinta said in a statement that Permira's investment will bring on board experience needed to integrate the company's acquisition of eBay Classifieds.

For the acquisition of eBay Classifieds to proceed, eBay committed to decrease its stake in Adevinta to 33%, while Adevinta committed to sell UK-headquartered Gumtree and Austria-based Shpock; the latter was acquired by Russmedia Equity Partners in June for an enterprise value in the EUR 75m-100m range, as reported.

Unquote sister publication Mergermarket reported in June that the sale process for Gumtree had begun, with Exponent and Inflexion reportedly expressing interest in acquiring the business.

According to a statement, Adevinta intends to take advantage of opportunities to scale its transactional capability as part of its future growth, as well as expanding its offering in the automotive, real estate and jobs markets following its investment from Permira and its acquisition of eBay Classifieds.

Company
Online classifieds platform Adevinta was formerly part of publishing group Schibsted and listed in Oslo in April 2019, establishing itself as an independent entity. The company operates websites in 16 countries, including Leboncoin in France, mobile.de and eBay Kleinanzeigen in Germany, as well as Marktplaats in the Netherlands.

Adevinta stated in its 2020 annual report that it posted EBITDA of EUR 194m and revenues of EUR 727m in 2020, compared with EBITDA of EUR 206m and revenues of EUR 740m in 2019. The company employs 4,700 staff.

People
Permira – Dipan Patel (partner, head of consumer); Stefan Dziarski (partner).
Adevinta – Rolv Erik Ryssdal (CEO); Orla Noonan (chair of the board).
eBay – Jamie Iannone (CEO).

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