COBALT advised funds advised by Apax Partners on acquiring the Baltic Classifieds Group

COBALT advised the funds (Apax Funds) advised by Apax Partners LLP on acquiring 100% of the shares in Baltic Classifieds Group OÜ (BCG), a company holding of a portfolio of online classifieds ads services in the Baltics.

BCG operates Autoplius.lt, Aruodas.lt, Skelbiu.lt, CVBankas.lt, KV.ee, City24.ee, City24.lv, Osta.ee and Soov.ee, online classifieds platforms for Automotive, Real Estate, Jobs, and General Merchandise. BCG’s portals in three countries generate more than 50m monthly visits in aggregate.

Apax Partners LPP is a UK limited liability partnership and advises the Apax private equity funds investing in a range of industry sectors. The Apax Funds invest in companies across four global sectors of Tech & Telco, Services, Healthcare and Consumer. These funds provide long-term equity financing to build and strengthen world-class companies.

The client was advised by COBALT’s pan-Baltic team, working with Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP, in all aspects of the transaction, including carrying out the legal due diligence, help with the transaction documents, as well as assisting the client in getting a merger clearance for the acquisition.

The COBALT team was led by partner Martin Simovart and specialist counsel Ott Aava together with associate Liina Saaremets from COBALT’s Estonian office and assisted by partner Guntars Zīle and senior associate Elīna Ločmele from Latvia and managing partner Dr Irmantas Norkus and senior associates Inga Mažvilaitė and Justinas Kondratas from Lithuania. The project also required a significant contribution by our competition team’s partner Elo Tamm, specialist counsel Elena Hansov and associate Marit Martens (the Estonian office) and partner Rasa Zaščiurinskaitė and senior associate Paulius Bartkus (the Lithuanian office).