Completion of Parship Acquisition

RNS Number : 9443L

Oakley Capital Investments Limited

01 May 2015

 

1 May 2015

Oakley Capital Investments Limited

Completion of Parship

Oakley Capital Investments Limited (AIM : OCL), the AIM-listed company established to provide investors with access to the investment strategy being pursued by Oakley Capital Private Equity L.P. ("Fund I") and its successor fund, Oakley Capital Private Equity II ("Fund II"), ispleased to announce that 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. OCIL's contribution to Fund II's equity investment through its interest in Fund II was approximately €20.9 million.

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, Mark Joseph, Partner of 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 which and this transaction builds on Oakley's experience of investing in digital businesses such as Verivox.de and Facile.it."

Parship's Managing Directors, Tim Schiffers, Henning Rönneberg and Marc Schachtel added: "We are excited to work with our new shareholder. In 2014 we were able to grow the business by 35% and have achieved all time high revenues of €60 million. Oakley's strong track record of partnering with management teams to grow and build companies lays the perfect foundation to further strengthen Parship`s market position and to continue our exceptional growth story."

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For further information please contact:

Oakley Capital Limited
[phone]
Peter Dubens (Managing Partner)

FTI Consulting
[phone]
Ed Bridges/Emily Desmier

Liberum Capital Limited (Nominated Adviser & Broker)

[phone]

Steve Pearce / Tom Fyson

About Parship GmbH ("Parship")

Parship is an online dating business with a presence in 13 countries including leading positions in Germany, Switzerland and Austria.

About Oakley Capital Investments Limited ("OCL")

Oakley Capital Investments Limited is a Bermudan based company listed on AIM. OCL seeks to provide investors with long term capital appreciation through its investment in Oakley Capital Private Equity L.P. and Oakley Capital Private Equity II and, over time, through co-investment opportunities.

About Oakley Capital Private Equity

Oakley Capital Private Equity II is an unlisted mid-market private equity fund with the aim of providing investors with significant long term capital appreciation. The Fund's investment strategy is to focus on buy-out opportunities in industries with the potential for growth, consolidation and performance improvement. The Fund seeks to invest in companies with scale in their industry subsectors, thereby creating a sustainable earnings stream which should command a premium on exit.

Fund II is advised by Oakley Capital Limited, a privately owned asset management and financial advisory business with over $1 billion of assets under management which has a focus on investing in the telecoms, IT and media space.

 

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