Oakley Capital fund offloads two investments

Oakley Capital Investments announced on Thursday that the Oakley Capital Private Equity Fund II has reached an agreement to sell its 38.5% stake in Parship Elite Group, and its 9.9% stake in Verivox, to NuCom Group - ProSiebenSat.1's commerce unit.

The AIM-traded company said the agreement remained subject to approval by the responsible antitrust authorities.

It said it would realise estimated cash proceeds of approximately £51.1m on completion of the transactions.

The realisations would represent an increase of £10.6m to the net asset value range announced on 31 January, lifting the net asset value per share of between £2.43 and £2.45 by 5p.

“Following increased focus on the digital consumer sector, Oakley partnered with the management of Parship - the leading German online dating site - in April 2015,” the company’s board explained.

“A combination of strong organic growth and the synergistic acquisition of premium matchmaker ElitePartner has resulted in EBITDA increasing by more than 3x since Fund II's original investment.”

In September 2016, Fund II sold a controlling stake in Parship to ProsiebenSat.1, valuing the business at €300m and returning £38.6m to the company.

Thursday’s agreement sees NuCom acquire Fund II's remaining 38.5% stake in PEG, based on an enterprise value of €440m.

Fund II would receive further gross proceeds of €138m, generating overall returns of 4.7x gross money multiple and a gross internal rate of return of approximately 119%.

That represented an uplift of approximately £6.4m, or 22%, over the carrying value in the net asset value of the Company at 31 December.

“In a separate transaction, Oakley has also agreed to sell its remaining 9.9% stake in Verivox to NuCom at an enterprise value of €530m, marking the end of a long and successful relationship with the business,” the board added.

Oakley had originally partnered with Verivox, an online price comparison website, in 2009 and sold a majority stake to ProSiebenSat.1 in August 2015.

The partnership with ProSiebenSat.1 had helped to drive further growth through media investment, with revenues more than doubling since 2014.

Fund II would receive gross proceeds of €53m, crystallising returns of approximately 2.5x gross money multiple and approximately 43% gross internal rate of return.

That would represent an uplift of approximately £4.2m - or 38% - over the carrying value in the net asset value of the company at 31 December.

“The investment adviser, Oakley Capital, has once again generated significant value for the company,” said Oakley Capital Investments chairman Christopher Wetherhill.

“OCI continues to enjoy the return of capital from Fund II and the realisation of these digital consumer assets demonstrates Oakley's deep knowledge of online business models and their ability to identify market leaders with substantial potential for growth.”