$13 Billion Adevinta Takeover Deal To Go Ahead After 11th Hour Drama

The acquisition bid made by Aurelia Bidco for the Oslo-listed online marketplace operator Adevinta has finally reached the approval threshold after two deadline extensions.

As of this morning (8th of February), the owners of 93.71% of Adevinta's issued and outstanding shares have approved a bid made last year worth NOK115 ($10.85) per share, a premium of 51% compared to the volume-weighted six-month average up to September 19th.

The deal is now expected to progress pending regulatory approval.

Aurelia Bidco, a consortium led by U.S. private equity firms Permira and Blackstone, issued a statement on the progress of the deal in a release to the market earlier today:

"We are today announcing that we have fulfilled the Closing Condition relating to 90% total acceptance of the Offer. We are very pleased with the broad support for the transaction from Adevinta shareholders, including share-owning members of the Company’s board and management. As recently disclosed, we also continue to make good progress on the regulatory approval process. Having extended the offer period to 9 February 2024, we are providing remaining shareholders with the opportunity to join in the transaction and benefit from the settlement process under the voluntary offer."

Adevinta was spun off from Schibsted in 2019 to manage the Scandinavian media giant's foreign online marketplace assets. The company owns and operates many well-known generalist and real estate vertical brands around the world including Fotocasa (Spain) and Leboncoin (France) and holds joint ventures in Grupo OLX (Brazil) and Daft.ie (Ireland).

Over the last few years, Adevinta has failed to create real value for its shareholders and has been selling off many of its underperforming marketplace assets (table below).

The bid from Permira and Blackstone was made public in September 2023 with major shareholders eBay and Schibsted both coming out early in support of the bid.

The acquisition process hasn't been smooth. Adevinta's own board of directors expressed doubts about whether the value of the bid reflected the company's long-term growth potential and the deadline for shareholder acceptance had to be extended by two weeks to February 7th.

With one important shareholder still holding out, yesterday the deadline was once again extended. But with time running out, today the consortium will have been relieved to see the bid worth $13.3 billion accepted by the required number of shareholders.