Oakley Capital exits Parship Elite Group, making a 150% return

Sixteen months ago, private equity firm Oakley Capital made a contrarian move by acquiring online matchmaking service Parship from Holtzbrinck Digital. A few weeks later it also acquired Elite Partner, to create Parship Elite Group.

Now, ProsiebenSat1 Media acquired just over 50% in Parship Elite Group, for €100M. Parship was valued at €300M and had €100M in debt which means €200M in equity value. Prosieben also will replace the €100M loans with preferred capital.

Oakley Capital will receive about €129M in cash, realising a cash return of 2.3x in 16 months. Including the remaining 50% stake, the implied total return is 3.6x, which is equal to a 150% annual return on investment.

Last year, Oakley also sold price comparison website Verivox to ProsiebenSat1.

NOAH Advisors advised Oakley on the sale, after also having advised price comparison website Facile on its sale to Oakley Capital.

Pro tip: dealroom tracks over 230 companies in the online dating and matchmaking space, from early stage disruptors to late stage incumbents.