The race for Mobile.de, Germany’s largest online auto marketplace, is heating up as current owners Permira and Blackstone prepare for a potential €10bn IPO, while several PE funds and strategic buyers explore rival acquisition offers, according to a report by Reuters.
The report cites unnamed sources familiar with the matter as revealing that, Prosus, the Dutch technology investment firm backed by Naspers, has shown early-stage interest in making a bid for Mobile.de through its classifieds arm, OLX Group. The potential move follows Prosus’s recent €1.1bn acquisition of French motors platform La Centrale, signalling its ambitions to build a pan-European used-car marketplace portfolio.
While Permira and Blackstone remain focused on an initial public offering, private equity interest remains strong. Firms including EQT, Cinven, and Apax Partners are among those said to have expressed preliminary interest in acquiring all or part of Mobile.de should the IPO plan shift toward a trade or secondary buyout.
Permira and Blackstone, which acquired Mobile.de’s parent company Adevinta in 2023 for about NOK141bn, have been pursuing a breakup strategy since the deal — offloading Adevinta’s Spanish classifieds unit to EQT and its Austrian subsidiary Willhaben to investors Sprints Capital and Styria Media Group.
For private equity buyers, Mobile.de offers a rare opportunity to gain scale in Europe’s fast-digitising automotive retail market. The platform is a market leader in Germany, serving millions of monthly users and connecting dealers, manufacturers, and consumers in a sector increasingly shaped by digital transactions and data-driven services.
No formal sale process has begun, and Prosus’s involvement remains exploratory.
