The British private equity fund manager Oakley Capital has acquired a stake in Idealista, a portal in which it will invest USD 212 million in a transaction that has been advised on the antitrust and merger control aspects relating to the purchase option by an Ontier team led by the Head of the firm's Competition Law department, Francisco Cantos, assisted by the lawyer from the Regulatory, Public Law, Urban Planning and Competition Department, Silvia San Felipe.
In September 2020, the Swedish private equity fund EQT bought 80% of Idealista from Apax Partners for €1.3 billion, the largest acquisition of a company in the new digital economy in Spain and one of the largest M&A transactions in the country. Shortly afterwards, Oakley Capital, a British private equity fund, sold EQT its competitor to Idealista's business in Italy, Casa.it, one of the largest real estate platforms in the country.
Simultaneously, EQT and Oakley agree that EQT will give Oakley the option to reinvest part of the proceeds from the sale of Casa.it in Idealista. It is in this last transaction, the exercise of Oakley's call option on Idealista, that Ontier has advised the British fund. Following the exercise of the call option, Oakley Capital has become the third largest shareholder in Idealista, behind EQT and the founders, and has paid $212 million for its shareholding.
Francisco Cantos told On Time! that 'the antitrust advice was complex as it required evaluating, determining the scope and quantifying economically with sophisticated projections a very relevant antitrust contingency derived from a CNMC investigation of Idealista for the use of algorithms for allegedly anti-competitive purposes so that, in light of said antitrust contingency, with the advice of the Ontier team, finally and despite the economic importance of the contingency, the EBITDA multiples and the future IPO of Idealista, Oakley Capital opted to exercise the call option, given the foreseeable benefit of the transaction.
