Apax Nears Deal to Buy Warburg Pincus Out of €6.5B Dutch Telecom Odido After IPO Shelved

The Quick Take

• Private equity firm Apax Partners is nearing a deal to acquire Warburg Pincus's stake in Odido, a Dutch telecom operator valued at approximately €6.5 billion, following the shelved plans for an IPO.
• The transaction exemplifies the growing role of sponsor-to-sponsor deals as PE firms exhaust IPO options in an unstable European public market environment.
• At €6.5 billion enterprise value, the deal provides a fresh transaction reference benchmark for European telecom assets and signals that PE buyers see value in the sector even when public markets do not.

The reported Apax-Warburg transaction for Odido emerges from a European IPO market that has been persistently unfriendly to telecom listings. Rising interest rates compressed the sector's traditional infrastructure-like valuation multiples, while volatile trading conditions deterred institutional investors from committing to sizeable IPO allocations. Warburg Pincus's decision to shelve Odido's listing reflected these market realities rather than weakness in Odido's underlying business — the Dutch operator has demonstrated consistent subscriber retention and operational execution that would typically support a credible public listing. The challenge has been that the combination of rate environment and market volatility has depressed the multiples at which European telecom can access public capital.

The Apax deal structure — a secondary PE transaction where one sponsor acquires another's stake — has become an increasingly common exit route in European PE as IPO windows narrow. These deals allow sellers to achieve liquidity at reasonable valuations without requiring public market conditions to align. For Warburg, the transaction represents a viable exit from a large European fund investment that may have been earmarked for IPO proceeds. For Apax, the acquisition offers the opportunity to acquire quality infrastructure assets at pricing that reflects the PE market's willingness to underwrite returns at current rates rather than the more aggressive multiples a 2021-era IPO might have commanded.

The Odido transaction's significance extends beyond the two counterparties. At €6.5 billion, the deal establishes a reference valuation for a mid-size European telecom operator with solid market position, providing a real-transaction data point for valuations that listed telecom sector multiples have struggled to anchor. Investors in European telecom equities, PE funds with sector exposure, and companies considering European telecom acquisitions will all reference this transaction when calibrating their views on sector pricing. The transaction also suggests the PE ecosystem can absorb European telecom assets that cannot currently access public markets — a marginal positive for sector confidence even if it doesn't signal imminent IPO market reopening.

Sources: Financial Times Markets | Published 2026-09-26