The Swedish investment fund EQT Partners has hired Morgan Stanley to explore a possible sale of the online real estate portal Idealista, whose value is around 2.5 billion euros, including debt, according to Reuters, which cites venture capital firms as possible buyers.
Sources from EQT and Morgan Stanley did not want to comment on the operation, which would represent the second major change of owners of the online portal in less than five years.
Created in 2000 by the still CEO, Jesús Encinar, Idealista was acquired in 2020 by the Swedish fund, in an operation in which it was valued at around 1.3 billion euros. The plan since then has consisted of international expansion, with the purchase of the Italian group Casa.it and the proptech company Inmovilla.
Aside from the founder, the former majority partner, Apax Partners, still holds a small stake, as does another venture capital fund, Oakley Capital.
A few weeks ago, the company refinanced debt for nearly 300 million euros, whose maturity will now occur in 2029. This operation offers visibility to potential interested parties in its eventual purchase.
EQT Partners was created in 1994 and has accumulated investments of more than 200,000 million euros since its founding. In Spain, its main operations have been the acquisitions of Parques Reunidos and the Valencian genetic analysis company Igenomix, apart from Idealista.
