“EQT X fund has agreed to acquire Adevinta’s Spanish operations. The package would include leading Spanish online classified ads platforms: Coches, InfoJobs, Milanuncios, Fotocasa, and Habitaclia”.
The European online classifieds market is undergoing a major reshaping. In July 2025, Oslo-based Adevinta announced the sale of its Spanish operations, including well-known platforms such as InfoJobs, Fotocasa, Habitaclia, Milanuncios, coches.net, and motos.net to Swedish private equity giant EQT for an enterprise value of around €2 billion (about $2.3 billion) (Reuters, Adevinta). The deal, expected to close in the first quarter of 2026 pending regulatory approvals, reflects diverging strategic priorities for both companies. With this transaction, EQT X is expected to be 60 - 65 percent invested (including closed and/or signed investments, announced public offers, if applicable, and less any expected syndication). (EQT Group)
Adevinta: Retreat to Core Markets
EQT: Doubling Down on Spanish Marketplaces
For EQT, the acquisition is a natural extension of a strategy it is familiar with. The Stockholm-based private equity firm, with €266 billion under management as of mid-2025, has a track record of investing in European digital marketplaces. In 2020, it bought Idealista, Spain’s largest property classifieds site, and although it sold most of its stake in 2024, it retained an 18% holding. With Adevinta’s Spanish businesses, EQT will control another portfolio of market-leading brands, effectively gaining a foothold across jobs, real estate, automotive, and general classifieds (Cinco Días, AIM Group).
EQT’s thesis is clear: these platforms are entrenched leaders with strong brand equity in verticals that continue to migrate from offline to online. With unemployment services, real estate listings, and auto sales increasingly digitized, EQT sees room for growth by accelerating product innovation, improving digital infrastructure, and integrating artificial intelligence into user experience and monetization. The firm has also highlighted its “local with locals” model - retaining existing management teams while leveraging its international expertise and network (EQT Group).
Strategic Motives: A Two-Sided Logic
At its core, the deal represents two complementary logics. For Adevinta, it is defensive simplification: shedding attractive but non-core markets to redeploy resources into regions where scale matters most and private equity owners can drive higher exit multiples. For EQT, it is an offensive expansion: acquiring a diversified portfolio of leading platforms in Spain, a market where it already has experience and where digital classifieds are set for further growth.
The transaction also hints at possible consolidation down the road. With stakes in both Idealista and now Fotocasa/Habitaclia, EQT sits atop Spain’s two dominant real estate platforms - a situation that could invite regulatory scrutiny but also generate significant synergies if ever combined (AIM Group).
Author: Matas Veitas (Analyst, ISM SIF)
Adevinta has long been a heavyweight in the European classifieds ecosystem, with marquee platforms such as mobile.de in Germany, leboncoin in France, and Subito in Italy. But since being taken private in 2023 by Blackstone and Permira in a €14 billion deal, the company has embraced a deliberate “shrink-to-grow” strategy.
“The break-up isn’t about shrinking Adevinta – it’s about creating focused champions in each vertical. Spain’s assets deserve owners who’ll prioritize Iberian growth over pan-European synergies,” said a Permira executive familiar with the strategy.
Under its private equity owners, Adevinta has started divesting businesses outside its priority geographies. Spain - profitable but considered non-core - was judged less critical than Germany, France, and Benelux, where scale and growth potential are far greater. The Spanish exit cements Adevinta’s pivot toward its “Core Three” markets - Germany, France, and Benelux - which together generated 74% of the company’s €1.8 billion revenue in 2023. Spain, by contrast, contributed 12.6%, a respectable but subscale share compared with mobile.de alone, which accounted for 26.3%. This strategic calculus reflects a broader private equity playbook: Southern Europe is increasingly treated as a distinct investment theater requiring localized champions. Just as Cinven built scale in Iberia with Idealista, Permira and Blackstone are repositioning Adevinta as a leaner, more focused leader in Northern and Western Europe. (CorpDev.org)
The divestment follows a broader pattern. Earlier in 2025, Adevinta sold its stake in the Austrian classifieds platform Willhaben, and analysts have speculated about a possible IPO of mobile.de, its crown jewel in Germany (Reuters). Shedding the Spanish portfolio frees capital and management bandwidth, while aligning with Blackstone and Permira’s plan to maximize returns through simplification and selective focus.
Author: Matas Veitas (Analyst, ISM SIF)
“EQT X fund has agreed to acquire Adevinta’s Spanish operations. The package would include leading Spanish online classified ads platforms: Coches, InfoJobs, Milanuncios, Fotocasa, and Habitaclia”.
The European online classifieds market is undergoing a major reshaping. In July 2025, Oslo-based Adevinta announced the sale of its Spanish operations, including well-known platforms such as InfoJobs, Fotocasa, Habitaclia, Milanuncios, coches.net, and motos.net to Swedish private equity giant EQT for an enterprise value of around €2 billion (about $2.3 billion) (Reuters, Adevinta). The deal, expected to close in the first quarter of 2026 pending regulatory approvals, reflects diverging strategic priorities for both companies. With this transaction, EQT X is expected to be 60 - 65 percent invested (including closed and/or signed investments, announced public offers, if applicable, and less any expected syndication). (EQT Group)
Adevinta: Retreat to Core Markets
Adevinta has long been a heavyweight in the European classifieds ecosystem, with marquee platforms such as mobile.de in Germany, leboncoin in France, and Subito in Italy. But since being taken private in 2023 by Blackstone and Permira in a €14 billion deal, the company has embraced a deliberate “shrink-to-grow” strategy.
“The break-up isn’t about shrinking Adevinta – it’s about creating focused champions in each vertical. Spain’s assets deserve owners who’ll prioritize Iberian growth over pan-European synergies,” said a Permira executive familiar with the strategy.
Under its private equity owners, Adevinta has started divesting businesses outside its priority geographies. Spain—profitable but considered non-core—was judged less critical than Germany, France, and Benelux, where scale and growth potential are far greater. The Spanish exit cements Adevinta’s pivot toward its “Core Three” markets - Germany, France, and Benelux - which together generated 74% of the company’s €1.8 billion revenue in 2023. Spain, by contrast, contributed 12.6%, a respectable but subscale share compared with mobile.de alone, which accounted for 26.3%. This strategic calculus reflects a broader private equity playbook: Southern Europe is increasingly treated as a distinct investment theater requiring localized champions. Just as Cinven built scale in Iberia with Idealista, Permira and Blackstone are repositioning Adevinta as a leaner, more focused leader in Northern and Western Europe. (CorpDev.org)
The divestment follows a broader pattern. Earlier in 2025, Adevinta sold its stake in the Austrian classifieds platform Willhaben, and analysts have speculated about a possible IPO of mobile.de, its crown jewel in Germany (Reuters). Shedding the Spanish portfolio frees capital and management bandwidth, while aligning with Blackstone and Permira’s plan to maximize returns through simplification and selective focus.
EQT: Doubling Down on Spanish Marketplaces
For EQT, the acquisition is a natural extension of a strategy it is familiar with. The Stockholm-based private equity firm, with €266 billion under management as of mid-2025, has a track record of investing in European digital marketplaces. In 2020, it bought Idealista, Spain’s largest property classifieds site, and although it sold most of its stake in 2024, it retained an 18% holding. With Adevinta’s Spanish businesses, EQT will control another portfolio of market-leading brands, effectively gaining a foothold across jobs, real estate, automotive, and general classifieds (Cinco Días, AIM Group).
EQT’s thesis is clear: these platforms are entrenched leaders with strong brand equity in verticals that continue to migrate from offline to online. With unemployment services, real estate listings, and auto sales increasingly digitized, EQT sees room for growth by accelerating product innovation, improving digital infrastructure, and integrating artificial intelligence into user experience and monetization. The firm has also highlighted its “local with locals” model - retaining existing management teams while leveraging its international expertise and network (EQT Group).
Strategic Motives: A Two-Sided Logic
At its core, the deal represents two complementary logics. For Adevinta, it is defensive simplification: shedding attractive but non-core markets to redeploy resources into regions where scale matters most and private equity owners can drive higher exit multiples. For EQT, it is an offensive expansion: acquiring a diversified portfolio of leading platforms in Spain, a market where it already has experience and where digital classifieds are set for further growth.
The transaction also hints at possible consolidation down the road. With stakes in both Idealista and now Fotocasa/Habitaclia, EQT sits atop Spain’s two dominant real estate platforms—a situation that could invite regulatory scrutiny but also generate significant synergies if ever combined (AIM Group).
Author: Matas Veitas (Analyst, ISM SIF)