Prosus, handed in the highest offer for eBay’s classifieds unit, putting the Naspers-owned business in pole position to win one of the largest auction processes this year, people familiar with the matter said.

The eBay board is scheduled to meet on Friday to formally choose a preferred bidder, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private. A sale of the classifieds business was expected to fetch more than US$8-billion (R133-billion), Bloomberg News has reported.

Prosus is competing against a private equity consortium — backed by Blackstone Group, Permira and Hellman & Friedman — and a separate proposal from Norwegian online marketplace Adevinta, the people said. The situation is fluid, and one of the rival bidders could still emerge on top, according to the people.

Shares of Prosus were down 0.1% at 11.53am in Amsterdam, giving the e-commerce investor a market value of €138-billion. The Euro Stoxx Technology Index rose 1%.

The eBay classifieds business includes a number of online marketplaces separate from the company’s eponymous auction platform. Its brands include Kijiji, which is commonly used in Canada and Italy, and Gumtree, a classifieds site popular in the UK, Australia and South Africa. It also owns Bilbasen, a Danish online vehicle marketplace, and British car search website Motors.co.uk.

All-cash offer

Prosus submitted an all-cash offer, while Adevinta’s bid was a mix of cash and stock, the people said. Representatives for Adevinta, eBay, Prosus and the private equity bidders declined to comment.

eBay said in February it was in active talks with multiple parties about a potential deal for its classifieds business as it responded to pressure from activist investors to focus on its main online marketplace. Any deal would add to the $239-billion of acquisitions involving technology companies announced this year. — Reported by Jan-Henrik Förster, Dinesh Nair, Loni Prinsloo and Aaron Kirchfeld, (c) 2020 Bloomberg LP