Oakley Capital Investments Limited has announced that it has been informed that Oakley Capital Private Equity III (Fund III) has agreed to acquire a portfolio of European real estate websites including Casa.it in Italy and atHome.lu in Luxembourg. Oakley is backing the existing management team to acquire the business in a carve-out from its parent company, REA Group.
Oakley Capital Investments announcement says that the transaction builds on Oakley’s experience in the online consumer sector through its previous investments in Facile.it, Parship Elite Group and Verivox.de. It also says that Oakley is attracted to these business models because of the strong underlying structural market growth in these segments, their asset-light nature which leads to strong cash conversion, and the ability to accelerate performance through effective KPI management, especially around marketing.
Established in 1996, Casa.it is the number two player in the online real estate advertising market in Italy. The Italian residential property market is estimated to be worth over €75 billion annually, and Oakley says that the penetration of online property portals is expected to grow strongly as the market develops. Oakley says that Casa.it is well-positioned to replicate the success of leading property portal players in more mature markets such as the UK, Germany and Australia. Established in 2001, Oakley says that atHome.lu has established a market leading position in the online real estate advertising market in Luxembourg, with over 90% coverage of real estate agents. Collectively, the business generated revenues of €33.3m and reported EBITDA of €6.0m for the year ended 30 June 2016. Oakly Capital Investments says that Fund III intends to partly fund the acquisition with third party debt. The Company’s contribution to the equity investment, through its interest in Fund III, is expected to be approximately €50m dependent on the capital structure at completion.
Oakley Capital Investments announces investment in Casa.it and atHome.lu : OCL