Adevinta Sells Yapo.cl to Frontier Digital Ventures

Frontier Digital Ventures has this morning announced that it has reached an agreement with Adevinta to purchase the leading horizontal marketplace site Yapo.cl for $19.5 million. The acquisition follows Adevinta's sale of Fincaraíz, Tayara and Avito to FDV back in October as the company looks to concentrate on its core markets and the integrations resulting from the eBay Classifieds merger.

Yapo claims the top spot in the profitable Chilean property and auto verticals and is expected to contribute positively to FDV's revenue with "attractive monetisation opportunities identified to accelerate revenue growth". FDV now has a healthy presence in Latin America with InfoCasas in Uruguay, Bolivia, Peru and Paraguay, Encuentra24 in central America, Fincaraíz in Colombia and now Yapo in Chile and today's press release highlights "potential opportunities for collaboration and/or consolidation" in the region between these assets.

Speaking about the deal, FDV Founder and CEO Shaun Di Gregorio said:

"With this acquisition, FDV’s network of operating companies now spans the length of South America, significantly enhancing our position in a highly attractive region.  We expect Yapo to make a material contribution to the continued revenue growth we have demonstrated since our IPO in 2016. Control of Yapo will allow FDV to immediately begin implementing best in class strategies to enhance monetisation across the platform."

With so much work needed to incorporate the classifieds assets that Adevinta bought as part of the colossal $9.2 billion eBay deal, more divestments from its 'Global Markets' segment were perhaps to be expected and indeed CEO Rolv Erik Ryssdal hinted as much in the company's Q4 earning report. In his comments this morning Ryssdal was happy to see Yapo go to a good home:

"I am very proud of the work achieved by our team in Chile, building Yapo into a solid leader with strong traffic and growth. Yapo requires additional investment, support and resources to continue this momentum, and I believe that FDV has the expertise and focus to help Yapo reach its full potential. The new owners will be a good fit for Yapo and give the team the support they need to move forward faster."

FDV will be hoping to bring to Yapo some of the expertise and nous Encuentra24 COO Wendy Jordan told us was a big reason for the company's partnership with the Malaysian headquartered venture firm back in 2016. Adevinta, for its part, will be hoping that the pairing down of its outlying assets can lead to an increased focus on its core European and Brazilian markets and spark a flatlining share price into life.