LONDON: Oakley Capital, a leading pan-European private equity investor, announced that Oakley Capital Fund IV has sold its stake in idealista, southern Europe’s leading online real estate classifieds platform, to Cinven in a transaction that values the business at €2.9 billion.
idealista has performed ahead of its original investment case and, including prior distributions, Fund IV will realise a gross return of 2.1 x MM and c.22% IRR on its exit, reflecting current valuation trends in the sector. The transaction is subject to customary conditions and approval.
Oakley invested in idealista in 2021 alongside EQT, following the combination of Oakley portfolio company and Italian property portal Casa.it with idealista’s Italian operations in 2020.
Today, idealista connects around 60 thousand real estate agents with over 38 million unique monthly visitors generating over one billion visits annually across southern Europe, making it a valuable tool for prospective homeowners and sellers in Spain, Italy and Portugal.
Oakley’s exit from idealista continues its successful track record in the digital consumer sector where Oakley’s most recent prior investments, have included: Italy’s leading online price comparison website, Facile.it (Fund II exit 3.7 x gross MM, Fund III exit 2.5x gross MM), the leading online matchmaking platform in the DACH region, ParshipElite Group (Fund II exit 4.7x gross MM) and leading independent energy switching portal Verivox (Fund I exit 15.1 x gross MM, Fund II exit 2.5 x gross MM).
Oakley’s investment in and exit from idealista also reinforces Iberia as an important investment market for the firm with current portfolio companies in the region including adtech business Seedtag (partial exit to Advent in 2022), enterprise SaaS business Grupo Primavera, now part of Cegid, transport and logistics software business Alerce, Horizons Optical, a provider of medical software, as well as premium K12 private schools.
Oakley Capital co-Founder and Managing Partner Peter Dubens said: “Oakley’s successful partnership with idealista continues our strong track record of investing behind exceptional founders. We have enjoyed working with Jesús as he has built one of Spain’s most successful digital businesses. Iberia boasts an increasingly attractive ecosystem of promising tech businesses and remains an important investment destination for Oakley.”
Jesús Encinar, Founder, Chairman & CEO of idealista said: “I am extremely proud of idealista’s achievements to date. Supporting thousands of real estate agents and private individuals across the region, and with the support of our investors including Oakley, we have built the Company into the leading online real estate classifieds platform in southern Europe. As we look ahead, combining our experience with the knowledge and experience of the Cinven team we believe we can accelerate our impressive trajectory even further and we look forward to it.”