Liberty Global Ventures, the investment arm of cable group Liberty Global, has set up a joint venture with private equity firm InfraVia Capital Partners to build FTTH networks in Germany. The venture will initially target small number of municipalities in Germany and potentially continue with investments in a second phase if targets are met. The companies each own a 50 percent stake in the JV, which remains subject to regulatory approval.
Liberty Global has experience of the German market, after previously owning the Unitymedia network sold to Vodafone in 2019. It has worked with municipalities and regional authorities to expand Unitymedia’s network, which reached 13 million homes passed and 7.2 million customers by the time of its sale.
Further details of the plans were not disclosed. Liberty Global said it was "excited by the attractive returns" of greenfield deployments in Germany, where fibre and ultrafast broadband still have a limited presence. The company is already investing in fibre in the UK, through its joint venture Virgin Media O2.
InfraVia is an experienced investor in infrastructure projects. Previous investments include French operators Adtim and Celeste, Swiss data centre group Green and Irish towers group Cignal.
