The breakup of one of Europe’s largest classifieds groups will be kicked off this week with the more than €500m (£414m) sale of Distilled, a major player in the Irish online advertising market .
Sky News has learned that Adevinta, which was previously listed in Oslo and taken private by private equity firms Blackstone and Permira, agreed a year ago to sell Distilled to Blacksheep Fund Management.
The deal could be announced as early as Monday.
Distilled operates the Daft.ie, DoneDeal.ie and Adverts.ie platforms, which allow consumers to buy and sell cars and property.
The sale to Blacksheep will represent a significant step in the planned spin-off of Adevinta, which was bought by the two private equity firms for around $13bn (£10.4bn).
Blacksheep, based in Dublin, manages the assets of charitable institutions and has extensive experience investing in the classifieds sector.
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Eamonn Fallon, founder and chief executive of Distilled, will continue to run the company following the sale, according to an insider.
Barclays would have advised Distilled, while Lazard would advise Blacksheep.
A news report this weekend suggested that Apax Partners was close to buying Distilled.
None of the parties involved could be reached for comment Sunday.