General Atlantic Nets $220m as it Divests from Swedish Portal Hemnet

The private equity firm General Atlantic has divested from Hemnet according to a press release issued by the Swedish portal this morning.

The New York-based company cashed out its 16.8 million shares in the portal at a price of SEK 137 per share, netting around $220 million in the process.

Before Hemnet's 2021 IPO,  General Atlantic had been a majority stakeholder along with British private equity firm Sprints having bought into the portal in 2017. After the IPO, General Atlantic was still the largest single shareholder with 31 million shares representing around 30% of Hemnet at the end of 2021 according to the portal's end-of-year filings.

Since its IPO in the Spring of 2021, Hemnet has increased net sales on a year-on-year basis for every quarter it has reported. Earlier this week the company released its interim report for Q4 of the financial year showing sales up 13% and average revenue per agent (ARPA) up 33%.

The portal's share price has failed to keep pace with its operational metrics, however. After surging 50% in value immediately after making its debut on the Stockholm Nasdaq at SEK 115, the portal's stock has languished between SEK 120 and SEK 160.

General Atlantic is no stranger to the world of online real estate classifieds. The company has invested in the likes of the Indian FSBO platform NoBroker, Middle Eastern real estate specialist Property Finder and the Swiss Marketplace Group among others.