idealista

idealista

September 2020
Iberia, > €500m

Liberty advises the management team of idealista on their €1.3bn secondary buy-out led by EQT

Liberty Corporate Finance (“Liberty”) advised the management team of idealista, the leading online real estate classifieds platform in Southern Europe, on the acquisition by EQT IX fund (“EQT”). EQT acquired idealista from Apax, who invested in the company in 2015, in a €1.3bn secondary buy-out.

The support throughout the whole process from Mick, Dan and Alvaro at Liberty has allowed us to make the right decisions and re-invest with strong confidence in the deal proposed by EQT. We are also very happy to have had their advisory services in our previous deal with Apax in 2015 which has resulted in an excellent outcome now and to have established this longstanding relationship was invaluable for the management team.

Jesus Encinar
Co-Founder and CEO of idealista

Headquartered in Madrid, Spain, idealista supports approximately 40,000 real estate agents and 38 million unique monthly visitors across Southern Europe by providing an online real estate classifieds marketplace for home buyers and sellers. The Company’s online platform and diversified portfolio of digital services, such as CRM tools, data analytics, and online mortgage brokerage, help enable efficient real estate transactions, making it a key destination for prospective homeowners and sellers in Spain, Italy, and Portugal.

EQT will support idealista’s growth by investing in the Company’s online platform and further developing its portfolio of value-add services for real estate agents. Together with its founders and management, EQT will support idealista’s plans to further penetrate its core markets and strengthen its position as the market leading and go-to platform for online real estate classifieds in Southern Europe.

EQT is a differentiated global investment organization with more than €62bn in raised capital and around €40bn in assets under management across 19 active funds. EQT funds have portfolio companies in Europe, Asia-Pacific and North America with total sales of more than €27bn and approximately 159,000 employees. EQT works with portfolio companies to achieve sustainable growth, operational excellence and market leadership.

Liberty Corporate Finance advised the senior management team on the terms of their investment and the management incentive plan.

It has been a pleasure working with Jesus, Cesar, Fernando, Marta and all the team at idealista. The vision and ambition they have to provide the best online real estate classified platform across Southern Europe, ably supported by Apax, has delivered phenomenal growth. I wish them and EQT all the very best for continued success.

Michael McDonagh
Partner
+44 (0) 7715 705 000
michael.mcdonagh@libertycf.co.uk