Idealista Refinances Its Debt. Is a Sale or IPO on the Horizon?

According to the Spanish newspaper, El País the real estate portal operator Idealista may be closer to a sale or an IPO after it refinanced €300 million of its debt.

Idealista owns and operates leading real estate verticals in Spain and Portugal and is in a hotly disputed race for the number one spot in Italy with Immobiliare.it.

Idealista Assets

The newspaper cited "financial sources" who indicated that Idealista's main shareholders, the private equity firms EQT and Apax Partners, got together with major Spanish investment banks to discuss a possible sale of the company or a float on the public markets via an IPO.

EQT paid former owner Apax Partners €1.3 billion for an 80% stake in Idealista in 2020 and subsequently sold off tranches of the company's shares to Oakley Capital and back to Apax Partners. The price paid was above the equity the company had and Idealista is allowed to amortize the difference over a period of ten years.

El País reports that the Madrid-based company recently finalized a financing arrangement of €90 million with BBVA, Banco Santander, CaixaBank, Société Générale, and Unicredit, set to mature in 2029.

The article also claims that two other loans set to mature in 2029, amounting to €99 million and €90 million, have been approved in collaboration with BBVA, BNP Paribas, CaixaBank, Credit Agricole, Banco Santander, ING, SGBTCI, and Unicredit, as well as two revolving lines of credit, totalling €5.0 million and €50 million.

Idealista generated €118 million in revenue in 2022, representing a 17% increase compared to 2021. According to the company's 2019 filings, Idealista was profitable to the tune of €39 million and was likely profitable on an operational basis in 2021 and 2022.

Idealista has so far not commented on the reports.