Oakley Capital Investments’ Oakley Capital Private Equity II is to sell its stake in Facile.it, an Italian price comparison website, to EQT VIII (EQT).
Oakley Capital Private Equity III (Fund III) will invest EUR80 million alongside EQT as a minority partner to continue to benefit from Facile’s strong market leading position in the Italian market, which still has significant structural growth potential.
The Company will realise estimated cash proceeds of approximately GBP52.2 million on completion of the sale of Facile. The realisation would represent an increase of GBP19.1 million to the December 2017 NAV, lifting the NAV per share by 9.3 pence. The Company’s contribution to Fund III’s investment in Facile is expected to be approximately GBP28.6 million.
Oakley originally invested in Facile in 2014, building on the sector experience gained through an earlier investment in Verivox, the Germany-based online price comparison website. Under Oakley’s ownership Facile has successfully expanded its market share in its core automotive price comparison market, whilst also establishing leading positions in the Broadband and Gas & Power verticals, and growing challenger positions in Loans and Mortgages. Since acquisition, the Company has nearly trebled EBITDA and today helps three million monthly users to compare prices on key elements of their household expenditure.
Fund III is delighted to have the opportunity to invest in a high growth market leader such as Facile and continue Oakley’s successful track record in the online price comparison sector. EQT brings a wealth of relevant experience in the space and a highly complementary approach to partnering with top management teams.
This transaction continues Oakley’s recent track record of significant value creation in the Digital Consumer sector: Fund II’s investment in PARSHIP Elite Group, a leading online dating site based in Germany, generated gross return of 4.7x MM and an IRR of 119 per cent; Verivox, a Fund II investment in the price comparison segment, generated a gross return of 2.5x MM and an IRR of 43 per cent.
BofA Merrill Lynch acted as Facile’s financial advisor in connection with this transaction.
Christopher Wetherhill, Chairman of OCI, says: “The impressive returns delivered on the exit in Facile demonstrates the strength of Oakley’s capabilities in the digital consumer space, and builds further on the strong returns generated earlier in the year from the sale of the stakes in Verivox and Parship. The returns on both were enhanced by retaining minority stakes following a sale to a third party. We are therefore delighted to be in the position to be realising significant cash value from the Facile investment whilst retaining an interest in its future success and value creation.”
Peter Dubens, Managing Partner of Oakley Capital Private Equity, says: “We would like to thank Mauro Giacobbe and his team for their excellent work in developing the business during the investment period and we very much look forward to working with them, and with EQT, to continue to drive further expansion of the business. Digital Consumer has long been one of the core areas of expertise for Oakley and our “repeat-play” strategy continues to create significant returns.”
