Cinven, Permira and Mid Europa Team up for $3.25bn Allegro Deal
Eastern Europe’s largest e-commerce platform has been bought by a group of private equity investors in a $3.25bn bet on the rise of internet retail in the continent’s emerging economies.
The deal is another example of private equity firms teaming up for billion dollar assets following Cinven and CVC’s £1 billion purchase of NewDays Earlier this week.
The majority stakes will be retained by Permira and Cinven while Allegro and Mid Europa will be given minority stakes.
Allegro, which has more than 20m registered users and 14m monthly transactions, is crucial to the development of many retail brands as many start off as online ventures in this market.
“The business has a fantastic underlying technology platform and we look forward to backing the management team to develop it further,” said Richard Sanders, partner at Permira. “We believe Allegro is ideally positioned to capture the next wave of growth in online and mobile commerce.”
We, onefourzero Group, were commissioned by the Cinven, Permira Mid Europa Deal Team to undertake Digital Due Diligence and analysis of Allegro’s digital performance, market penetration, audience brand equity and operational reputation.
Working alongside other Due Diligence streams we helped them make informed decisions on several key questions through digital analysis of the market.
The purchase of one of Poland’s biggest companies by foreign companies amidst political and nationalistic turbulence, precipitated by the Brexit and the immigrant crisis may cause reverberations between the retailer and its predominantly loyal and focused customer base. Consumer sentiment and audience behaviour, predominantly online, will have to be monitored closely to anticipate possible changes in sentiment and purchasing habits.
“Thanks again for your help” – Permira Advisers LLP
