Bouygues subsidiary Axione has strengthened its ties with investment firm Mirova to create CityFast, a new company that will bring FTTH connectivity to 3.4 million French premises in very densely populated areas. The venture has secured a tender from Bouygues Telecom, creating a new business model under which the operator transfers its existing FTTH infrastructure to CityFast and gains rights to use CityFast’s network for 30 years.
The deal will enable Bouygues Telecom to have full access by 2021 to the entire footprint of French very densely populated areas, representing 6.4 million premises. In 2010, it had signed a co-investment partnership with SFR to cover 3 million of these homes and businesses.
CityFast will now finance the deployment work for the remaining 3.4 million premises, selling access to the new open-access network as a wholesaler. Axione will be responsible for maintaining and operating the infrastructure, building on the expertise gained in managing public initiative fibre networks in French rural areas.
The financial partner of this deal, Mirova, has been working with Axione since 2009 and is participating in the funding of sixteen public initiative network projects. The company is a subsidiary of Natixis Investment Managers, which is majority owned by French banking group BPCE.
According to Les Echos, the transfer of the existing FTTH infrastructure to CityFast will raise Bouygues Telecom around EUR 43-45 million. Rival Altice France also recently agreed an equity partnership with a group of investors to form a new fibre venture valued at EUR 3.6 billion, which is targeting a footprint of 5 million premises outside densely populated areas.
