Oakley Capital Private Equity is pleased to announce that Oakley Capital Private Equity Fund II (“Fund II”) has completed the purchase of Parship GmbH (“Parship”), a leading online dating company. Fund II has invested alongside Parship’s senior management team.
Parship has been acquired from Holtzbrinck Digital GmbH, a subsidiary of Georg von Holtzbrinck GmbH & Co. ZB. The purchase price comprised an upfront consideration and a vendor loan and was partly funded with third party debt.
Founded in 2001 and headquartered in Hamburg, Parship is one of Europe’s earliest online dating businesses and has built up a strong position in Germany, Switzerland and Austria. Parship also has a presence in 10 other countries.
The business generated revenues of approximately €60 million and EBITDA of approximately €8 million for the year ended 31 December 2014. Parship’s strong growth trajectory has continued in 2015 and the last 12 months’ EBITDA to 31 March 2015 was over €12 million.
Commenting on the acquisition, David Keech, Director at Oakley Capital Private Equity, said: “We are delighted to be investing in Parship, the company has a strong record of growth and a leading position in this attractive online sector and this transaction builds on Oakley’s experience of investing in digital businesses such as Verivox.de and Facile.it.”
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