General Atlantic Preparing €3 Billion Bid for Idealista

Reports in Spanish publication Expansión suggest that General Atlantic (GA) is preparing a bid worth three billion euros for the European portal operator Idealista.

Idealista has been unofficially up for sale for at least 12 months, but the company has recently taken active steps to consolidate its debts in preparation for a potential buyout offer.

The portal, a market leader in Spain and Portugal and a highly competitive force in Italy, was purchased for €1.3 billion by EQT and other investors in 2020, and four years later it appears to have more than doubled in value, with Expansión claiming that GA is willing to pay up to three billion for Idealista—valuing the business at between 20-22 times EBITDA.

The bid is likely to come from a consortium consisting of GA and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, with Morgan Stanley also involved in coordinating a potential deal.

Idealista Assets

Previous reporting implied that four private equity firms were preparing bids, namely from the USA and Canada.

Meanwhile, el Economista has suggested that CVC and Silver Lake may also be interested in the bidding war while German publicly-listed company ImmoScout was also named as a potential bidder.

Should GA indeed go after Idealista, it will reflect a trend of American money coming into European marketplaces and particularly real estate. Compatriot portal giant CoStar has already invested $100 million in OnTheMarket in the UK with promises of more acquisitions, while the Permira and Blackstone consortium is in the closing stages of a $13 billion takeover of marketplace giant Adevinta.

Our most recent coverage of Idealista shows that the portal recently teamed up with Tecnocasa in Italy.