Swedish private equity fund EQT announced that it has acquired Deutsche Glasfaser together with Canadian pensions investor Omers Infrastructure Investment from KKR Infrastructure and Dutch investor Reggeborgh for an undisclosed sum. EQT Infrastructure will own a 51 percent stake in the company and Omers 49 percent. The transaction is expected to be completed in Q2 following approval from the anti-trust authority.
The deal, in which EQT beat rival investment firms Antin and Brookfield, values Deutsche Glasfaser at more than EUR 2.5 billio, including debt, people close to the matter told Reuters.
Deutsche Glasfaser will be merged with regional operator Inexio, which is already owned by EQT Infrastructure through its fund IV. The goal is to develop the consolidated firms into a leading provider of FTTH connections and telecommunications in Germany. The group plans to invest over EUR 7 billion in rolling out broadband infrastructure in rural regions of Germany over the coming years.
Deutsche Glasfaser currently provides connections to more than 600,000 households and 5,000 companies over more than 30,000 km of fibre-optics. It has partnerships with Vodafone to expand its network further and also recently agreed to test working with Deutsche Telekom.
