Adevinta Reveals New ‘Growing at Scale’ Strategy as It Focuses on European Markets

Global online classifieds operator Adevinta is to reveal its new 'Growing at Scale' strategy at a Capital Markets Day for investors and analysts to be held in London later today.

The company which describes itself as "the largest online classifieds player in the western world" will outline how it intends to grow profitably over the next phase of its journey after buying eBay Classifieds in a sensational $9.2 billion deal last year.

According to a press release, the pillars of Adevinta's new strategy are:

• Focussing on core profitable European markets: Germany, France, Spain, Benelux and Italy
• Focussing on profitable verticals (cars and real estate)
• Becoming fully transactional in its consumer goods category
• Leveraging technology to transform advertising

Commenting on the new strategy, Adevinta's CEO Rolv Erik Ryssdal said:

“We will prioritise investment for growth in our five Core markets of Germany, France, Spain, Benelux and Italy, and expand on our leading sector positions in Motors and Real Estate. We will also invest in product and development to stay agile and evolve our business model to reflect changing demands, such as becoming fully transactional in consumer goods. This will only be possible if we continue to provide opportunities for our talented employees, whose dedication and hard work is central to our past and future achievements. 

“In line with our vision for sustainable growth, we have a clear purpose to make a positive change in the world by engaging in actions that will help shape a healthy planet and society, whilst delivering value for our stakeholders.” 

Although Adevinta remains supportive of joint ventures in Ireland (Daft), Austria (Willhaben) and Brazil (OLX Brazil), the writing may be on the wall for several other classifieds titles around the world with the press release confirming that Adevinta will divest from Gumtree in South Africa and its titles in Australia and place others under "strategic review".

The writing may have been on the wall for some time for the likes of Vivanuncios in Mexico, Kufar in Belarus and Adevinta's various classifieds titles in Hungary. Adevinta has historically struggled to generate positive EBITDA margins for its 'Global' business segment and the company sold off leading Colombian real estate vertical Fincaraíz along with Moroccan horizontal Avito and Tunisian horizontal Tayara to Frontier Digital Ventures last year as it looked to pare down operations outside of its more lucrative markets.

Aside from the news that its generalist classifieds titles will be following the generally accepted wisdom that they must become truly transactional to survive, another noteworthy point from Adevinta's strategy missive was how the company plans to approach advertising.

Adevinta plans to invest in 1st party solutions for potential display advertisers including SMBs on its site and work to reduce reliance on 3rd party advertising platforms such as Google AdSense.

Like many classifieds companies, Adevinta has seen its share price stagnate of late and has outlined several ambitious financial targets to get the ball rolling again for shareholders expecting growth:

• Expected average annual revenue growth in Core Markets of approximately 15%
• Targetting EBITDA margins of 40-45%
• Net debt to EBITDA ratio of 2x -3x
• Expected €130m run rate EBITDA impact from synergies by year 2024

Readers who wish to remotely tune into Adevinta's Capital Markets Day scheduled for 14:00 GMT later today can sign up here.