Allegro’s acquisition expected to be confirmed on January 5

Currently under supervision by the pertinent European Union competence authorities, private equity firms Cinven, Permira and Mid Europa are expected to announce the acquisition of Polish e-commerce business Allegro by January, 5.

The investment firms will also formalise the takeover of Polish price comparison website Ceneo from South African media and e-commerce company Naspers

As reported by the ‘Financial Times’, Poland’s largest e-commerce platform plans to profit from a surge in internet shopping after the aforementioned 3.25 billion dollars buyout. The online shopping market in Poland - the EU’s sixth-largest economy - is worth about 10 billion euros a year, according to data accessed by the ‘FT’.

“There is a huge shift of consumers from offline to online and that gives a great tailwind for the Allegro business,” says David Barker, partner at private equity house Cinven, which combined with Permira and Mid Europa Partners, to buy Allegro in October.

Cinven Ltd., Permira and Mid Europa Partners agreed to buy Naspers Ltd.’s Polish online auction site, beating out other private-equity consortia including CVC Capital Partners and General Atlantic and a group composed of Advent International Corp. and Hellman & Friedman LLC, people familiar with the matter had said back in October.

The deal is part of Cape Town-based Naspers’s strategy to profit from its investments, according to a statement from the company Friday, reports Bloomberg.

Naspers bought Allegro in 2008 for almost 1.5 billion dollars.