Swedish private equity company EQT Partners said that its funds EQT V and EQT VI have agreed to sell Norwegian fibre network operator Broadnet to EQT Infrastructure III. The transaction is expected to close in May. Norwegian portal E24.no claimed to have information that Telia Company had been interested in Broadnet when EQT invited bids, alongside other financial and telecoms parties.
E24 said that Telia CEO Johan Dennelind had paid a visit to Norway in February and stated frankly that Telia sought a position on the Norwegian fixed line market and that it might make an acquisition there this year.
The Norwegian portal reported that a number of sources had told it that EQT had sold it for 8 billion crowns, although it is unclear whether these are Norwegian or Swedish crowns. It said that EQT declined to give E.24 a comment on the supposed price. E24.no also pointed out that EQT Infrastructure III already owns Dutch company Delta, GlobalConnect of Denmark and Lumos Networks in the US.
EQT Partners said that EQT V had acquired dark fibre provider InFiber in 2011 and EQT VI acquired telecom group Ventelo in 2012. The plan was to use the combined network as a platform for fibre expansion. In 2012, the two companies were merged into Broadnet. Since then, it has divested its voice platform, made significant investments in network upgrades and made five acquisitions.
From 2014 to 2017, revenue increased from NOK 1.4 billion to NOK 1.7 billion and adjusted EBITDA increased from NOK 330 million to NOK 550 million, said EQT.
Anders Misund, partner at EQT Partners, Investment Advisor to EQT V and EQT VI, said Broadnet is well positioned to capitalise on underlying market growth stemming from the shift from legacy technologies towards fibre. Broadnet CEO Martin Lippert said the sale of the company is more proof of its success in recent years.
E24 speculated that Telia might possibly make a bid for operators such as TDC-owned Get or Altibox, now that it has supposedly missed out on buying Broadnet.
