Apax sells Idealista to EQT for EUR 1.3 billion

An integrated team of lawyers from Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and Uría Menéndez advises Apax in the largest IT M&A in Spanish history 

Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and Uría Menéndez have represented funds advised by Apax Partners on the EUR 1.3 billion sale of Idealista, the leading online real estate classifieds platform in Southern Europe, to the Swedish EQT IX fund. The transaction was signed on 10 September and is subject to regulatory approvals.

EQT IX will have majority ownership whilst Idealista’s management team will continue to lead the company.

Founded in 2000 and headquartered in Madrid, Spain, Idealista supports approximately 40,000 real estate agents and 38 million monthly visitors across Southern Europe by providing an online real estate classifieds marketplace. Its online platform and portfolio of digital services, such as CRM tools, data analytics and online mortgage brokerage, help enable real estate transactions, making it a popular destination for prospective homeowners and sellers.

The transaction is the biggest private equity deal that has taken place in Spain and Portugal so far in 2020 and the largest Spanish IT M&A deal ever.

Uría Menéndez’s team was headed by M&A partner Juan Martín Perrotto and included María García Roldán (M&A); David López Pombo and Miloslava Ilcheva Srandeva (Tax); Tomás Arranz Fernández-Bravo and Jokin Beltrán de Lubiano (Competition and EU law); Mario Barros García (Employment); Leticia López-Lapuente (Data Protection); and David López Velázquez (Regulatory). The Simpson Thacher team included Derek Baird, Lucy Gillett and James Campisi (M&A); Jacob Durkin and Sophie Davies (Credit); and Yash Rupal and Ellie Verran (Tax).

Simpson Thacher and Uria Menéndez also represented the funds advised by Apax Partners that acquired Idealista in 2015. Since that acquisition, Idealista has increased traffic by more than 4x and revenues by 3x., and grown its workforce from c.300 employees to more than 750 today.