By John Revill and Emma-Victoria Farr
ZURICH (Reuters) -Online classifieds service Swiss Marketplace Team means to drift in the coming weeks on the Zurich 6 stock market, it said on Tuesday, marking the beginning of an expected wave of European initial public offerings.
SMG, which runs on the internet platforms for classified ads and public auctions, is backed by Swiss media organization TX Team, which owns a 30 7 % risk, as well as personal equity firm General Atlantic that holds an unrevealed minority stake.
The IPO might raise around 1 billion Swiss francs for existing stakeholders, valuing the company around 4 5 billion Swiss francs ($ 5 6 billion), with a minimum of 20 % of the company being sold to outdoors financiers, 3 sources accustomed to the issue claimed.
Swiss Marketplace Group declined to talk about any monetary terms or the exact timing of the potential IPO.
Equity capital markets advisors have actually forecasted Zurich and additionally Frankfurt will lead an upturn in IPO activity following a stagnation linked to the unpredictability bordering U.S. President Donald Trump ‘s tariffs.
SMG is well-suited to testing the stock exchange’s cravings for brand-new listings, as the company focuses on the Swiss residential market, which is sheltered from the toll turmoil, the very same resources said. They talked on problem of privacy due to the fact that they were not authorised to talk openly.
The Swiss Industry Team IPO will certainly make up an additional offering with all profits mosting likely to the vendors.
They will certainly be the business’s controlling shareholders Swiss insurance provider Mobiliar, media business Ringier, and General Atlantic, all selling a concealed quantity of shares, according to deal term sheets seen by Reuters. Investor TX Team will not sell shares, it claimed in a statement.
After such an announcement, it tackles typical around 4 weeks prior to a business’s shares can be traded openly.
The company, which was produced in 2021 and is the biggest driver of realty and automobile sales web sites in Switzerland, generated sales of 291 million Swiss francs, with a modified operating revenue margin of 48 % in 2024
For 2025, SMG expects sales growth of 13 to 15 %, and a operating profit margin in the mid- 50 % array.
J.P.Morgan, Goldman Sachs and UBS are coordinating the IPO, alongside Barclays, BNP Paribas, Morgan Stanley, Zuercher Kantonalbank and Evercore.
In Switzerland, the company operates residential or commercial property sites including homegate.ch and Immoscout 24, along with Autoscout 24 for car buyers.
International business with a comparable organization design include Germany’s Precursor 24, Britain’s Rightmove, Sweden’s Hemnet and the Baltic Classifieds Team.