The specialist Norwegian ads online Adevinta, mother house of The Good Corner, announced on Tuesday the repurchase of the assets of the american giant eBay in this area for nearly 9.2 billion dollars (8.0 billion euros) in cash and shares. According to the terms of the agreement to take control of the eBay Classified Group, which includes the sites, Gumtree and Kijiji, Adevinta will pay eBay $ 2.5 billion in cash and 540 million shares, corresponding to 44 % of the capital, says the Norwegian company, controlled by the group Schibsted, in a press release. On the other hand, the voting rights of eBay will be capped at 33.3 per cent, via some non-voting shares, precisely Adevinta. The transaction must be closed by the first quarter of 2021.
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Born in the last year of a split with Schibsted, which remained up to now its majority shareholder with about 59 % of the share capital, Adevinta is present in 15 countries in Europe, Latin America and North Africa. Following the transaction, the “share of Schibsted’s going to go down from 59 to 33% of the capital,” says Adevinta. The operation allows the Norwegian group to double in size. At the close of the market on Friday evening, the group, in which the action was suspended because of the imminence of an announcement, was valued at around 7.4 billion euros.
France account for half the turnover of the group
France, where he has, among other things, The Right Corner and The Argus, accounts for about half of its global turnover and the bulk of its profits. In addition to Gumtree and Kijiji, the branch of eBay in the online ads includes sites such as Mobile.de, Marktplaats, dba, Bilbasen, 2dehands, 2ememain, Vivanuncios, Automotive.it, Motors.co.uk, Autotrader (Australia), Carsguide (Australia) or eBay Kleinanzeigen.
According to multiple media outlets, anglo-saxon, a specialist in e-commerce, Prosus, and a consortium including funds of Blackstone and Hellman & Friedman were also in the running for the redemption. Schibsted takes, him, direct the activities of classified ads eBay in Denmark, for $ 330 million, reducing the expenditure in cash of Adevinta to $ 2.17 billion.
