Oakley Capital sells Parship and Verivox – Oakley Capital Investments says that Oakley Capital Private Equity II has reached an agreement to sell its 38.5% stake in PARSHIP ELITE Group and 9.9% stake in Verivox to NuCom Group, ProSiebenSat.1’s Commerce unit. The agreement is subject to approval by the responsible antitrust authorities.
Oakley Capital Investments will realise estimated cash proceeds of approximately £51.1m on completion of these transactions, adding £10.6m to the NAV range announced on 31 January 2018, lifting the NAV per share of 243p/245p by 5 pence.
PARSHIP ELITE Group
Following increased focus on the digital consumer sector, Oakley partnered with the management of Parship, the leading German online dating site, in April 2015. A combination of strong organic growth and the synergistic acquisition of premium matchmaker ElitePartner has resulted in EBITDA increasing by more than 3x since Fund II’s original investment.
In September 2016 Fund II sold a controlling stake in Parship to ProsiebenSat.1 valuing the business at €300m and returning £38.6m to the company. Today NuCom is acquiring Fund II’s remaining 38.5% stake in PEG based on an enterprise value of €440m. Fund II will receive further gross proceeds of c.€138m generating overall returns of 4.7x gross money multiple and a gross IRR of approximately 119% for Fund II. This represents an uplift of approximately £6.4m (22%) over the carrying value in the NAV at 31 December 2017.
Verivox
In a separate transaction, Oakley has also agreed to sell its remaining 9.9% stake in Verivox to NuCom at an enterprise value of €530m marking the end of a long and successful relationship with the business.
Oakley originally partnered with Verivox, the online price comparison website, back in 2009 and sold a majority stake to ProSiebenSat.1 in August 2015. The partnership with ProSiebenSat.1 has helped drive further growth through media investment, with revenues more than doubling since 2014. Fund II will receive gross proceeds of c.€53m, crystallising returns of approximately 2.5x gross money multiple and approximately 43% gross IRR for Fund II. This represents an uplift of approximately £4.2m (38%) over the carrying value in the NAV at 31 December 2017.
Christopher Wetherhill, Chairman of OCI, commented: “The investment adviser, Oakley Capital, has once again generated significant value for the company. OCI continues to enjoy the return of capital from Fund II and the realisation of these digital consumer assets demonstrates Oakley’s deep knowledge of online business models and their ability to identify market leaders with substantial potential for growth.”
Peter Dubens, Managing Partner of Oakley Capital Private Equity, commented: “The success of our digital consumer strategy continues. In this case we identified the lead players in developing local markets and combined with strong management teams have enjoyed impressive organic growth. In addition, Oakley facilitated ambitious and transformative M&A in combining Parship with ElitePartner shortly after our investment. Alongside ProSiebenSat.1 we have supported Verivox in their continued diversification into new product verticals and increased investment in offline advertising to drive revenue growth.
We would like to thank Tim Schiffers, Henning Rönneberg and Marc Schachtel at PARSHIP ELITE Group and Chris Öhlund at Verivox along with their respective management teams, as well as the team at ProSiebenSat.1. We wish them all the very best as they take the businesses forward to the next phase of growth.
The digital consumer sector remains a focus for Oakley and with our investments in Facile.it and Casa & atHome, we continue to build on our expertise in the area.”
OCI : Oakley Capital sells Parship and Verivox