On Monday, telecommunications infrastructure provider Eurofiber announced that it has brought on a new investor, Dutch pension fund PGGM, which will invest through its PGGM Infrastructure Fund
Following the Dutch fund’s onboarding as a shareholder, Eurofiber will continue under the majority ownership of Antin Infrastructure Partners, the private equity infrastructure investor that also owns CityFibre in the U.K., Spanish fiber provider Lyntia, and Firstlight, the U.S.-based fiber provider that serves customers in the Northeast. Antin Infrastructure Partners acquired Eurofiber in May 2015.
Busy…
Eurofiber is the largest provider of fiberoptic digital infrastructure to business-to-business segment in the Benelux region, and is growing rapidly in France and Germany. Eurofiber’s fiber network is open access, meaning that any service provider can use Eurofiber infrastructure to provide connectivity services to its end clients.
Since joining Antin’s infrastructure portfolio in 2015, Eurofiber has added more than 19,000 kilometers of fiber network and eight data centers, invested nearly EUR 400 million and completed several bolt-on acquisitions.
Earlier this month, the company announced a joint venture with Northern European utility Vattenfall—whose parent company is wholly owned by the government of Sweden—to provide fiber connectivity to more than 500,000 households and business in the German capital. The deal marks Eurofiber’s debut on the German market and will provide a ready digital infrastructure framework for 5G and IoT connectivity to the Berlin area.
Last month, Eurofiber announced the acquisition of Brightfiber, a builder and manager of fiber networks at Dutch business parks, following the acquisition last fall of three northern French companies, Eurafibre, ATE and Eura AC.
In June, Eurofiber—already a founding signatory of the so-called “5G Charter” to position the Netherlands as a leader in 5G technology development—announced that it had joined 5G-Blueprint, a public-private partnership of 28 stakeholders funded through a EUR 10 million subsidy from the European Union. The project will research real-time data exchanges between vehicles, terminals and distribution centers to improve transportation supply chain efficiency.
This latest investment from PGGM will enable Eurofiber to continue expanding its European footprint, as well as branching out into fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) projects.
…(as well as) Delighted, excited, and very pleased
Commenting on the deal, Eurofiber CEO Alex Goldblum said, “We are delighted to welcome PGGM as shareholder and to continue our excellent relationship with Antin. Demand for digital infrastructure is growing robustly and with Antin and PGGM as partners we can continue our rapid deployment, in turn further enabling the European digital society.”
PGGM’s head of Communication Infrastructure Investments Robert Hartog said, “The digitization of work and daily life clearly provides interesting opportunities for long-term pension capital and we are excited to work with Antin and Eurofiber to grow the company and enable it to continue its leading position in the market.’’
Finally, Antin Infrastructure Partners Senior Partner Stephane Ifker, said: “Antin is very pleased to welcome PGGM as its partner in Eurofiber. Together we will continue supporting Eurofiber as it prepares for its next phase of growth. Antin is convinced Eurofiber is well positioned to both continue its organic growth in the Netherlands, Belgium and France as well as expand via M&A and strategic partnerships across the fragmented European fiber market. The recent entry into the German market in partnership with Vattenfall is a perfect illustration of that strategy.”
