By John Revill and Emma-Victoria Farr
ZURICH (Reuters) -Online classifieds business Swiss Marketplace Group intends to float in the coming weeks on the Zurich SIX stock exchange, it said on Tuesday, marking the start of an expected wave of European initial public offerings.
SMG, which operates online platforms for classified ads and auctions, is backed by Swiss media business TX Group, which owns a 30.7% stake, as well as private equity firm General Atlantic that holds an undisclosed minority stake.
The IPO could raise about 1 billion Swiss francs for existing stakeholders, valuing the company around 4.5 billion Swiss francs ($5.6 billion), with at least 20% of the company being sold to outside investors, three sources familiar with the matter said.
Swiss Marketplace Group declined to comment on any financial terms or the exact timing of the potential IPO.
Equity capital markets advisers have predicted Zurich and also Frankfurt will lead an upturn in IPO activity following a slowdown linked to the uncertainty surrounding U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
SMG is well-suited to testing the stock market’s appetite for new listings, as the company focuses on the Swiss domestic market, which is sheltered from the tariff upheaval, the same sources said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak publicly.
The Swiss Marketplace Group IPO will comprise a secondary offering with all proceeds going to the sellers.
They will be the company’s controlling shareholders Swiss insurer Mobiliar, media company Ringier, and General Atlantic, all selling an undisclosed amount of shares, according to deal term sheets seen by Reuters. Shareholder TX Group will not sell shares, it said in a statement.
After such an announcement, it takes on average around four weeks before a company’s shares can be traded publicly.
The company, which was created in 2021 and is the largest operator of real estate and car sales websites in Switzerland, generated sales of 291 million Swiss francs, with an adjusted operating profit margin of 48% in 2024.
For 2025, SMG expects sales growth of 13 to 15%, and a operating profit margin in the mid-50% range.
J.P.Morgan, Goldman Sachs and UBS are coordinating the IPO, alongside Barclays, BNP Paribas, Morgan Stanley, Zuercher Kantonalbank and Evercore.
In Switzerland, the company operates property websites including homegate.ch and Immoscout24, as well as Autoscout24 for car buyers.
Foreign companies with a comparable business model include Germany’s Scout 24, Britain’s Rightmove, Sweden’s Hemnet and the Baltic Classifieds Group.
The listing could indicate a revival in the European IPO market, which has been subdued with only $7.2 billion raised since the start of the year, down from $63 billion in 2021.
High-profile IPO candidates in Germany include prosthetics manufacturer Ottobock, as well as the research and technology unit of Deutsche Börse, ISS Stoxx, as previously reported by Reuters.
($1 = 0.8019 Swiss francs)
(Reporting by Emma-Victoria Farr, Oliver Hirt and John Revill, Editing by Friederike Heine and Barbara Lewis)
