By Javier West Larranaga
(Reuters) -Norwegian online classifieds group Adevinta said on Monday it had sold its Spanish business to Swedish private equity firm EQT to focus more on its remaining European units.
The deal gave the Spanish business an enterprise value of around 2 billion euros ($2.3 billion), a source with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.
Reuters reported in May that Adevinta was exploring the sale, as its private equity owners seek to break-up the company to focus on three main markets – Germany, France and Benelux – and boost returns.
Adevinta’s Spanish unit comprises six marketplaces ranging from job-search platform Infojobs and real estate website Fotocasa to classified sites for second-hand cars and motorbikes coches.net and motos.net.
Adevinta, owned by a consortium led by Blackstone and Permira, also owns German online car sale webpage mobile.de and French and Italian second-hand marketplaces Leboncoin and Subito.
The deal is the latest in a string of planned or completed asset sales by Adevinta. The company has agreed to sell its stake in Austria’s consumer marketplace Willhaben and is mulling the listing of German online auto marketplace mobile.de.
In 2020, EQT bought Spanish rival real estate ads platform Idealista and sold it four years later, keeping a minority stake.
($1 = 0.8579 euros)
(Reporting by Javi West Larrañaga. Editing by Mark Potter and Toby Chopra)
