Spanish wholesale fibre provider Onivia has announced the acquisition of a majority stake in a further 1.1 million fibre to the home (FTTH) premises in rural areas from Masmovil. The transaction will allow Onivia to more than double its footprint to over 2.2 million homes following its acquisition of 940,000 FTTH units from Masmovil back in 2019. In a statement, Onivia said the rural network serves over a thousand communities of less than 25,000 inhabitants, complementing the metropolitan areas it already covers.
The acquisition of the majority stake was undertaken by Onivia’s current owners, Macquarie Capital, Aberdeen Standard Investments and Daiwa Energy & Infrastructure, with Masmovil retaining full ownership for its existing customers, while Orange and Masmovil will continue as anchor customers on the network. “This transaction confirms the Onivia’s commitment to continue growing in footprint, extending our reach nationwide by helping to close the digital divide between rural and urban areas and providing an access model for local and regional operators,” said Onivia CEO Jose Antonio Vazquez.
Onivia refrained from disclosing the amount paid for the stake but business daily Expansion estimated the figure at EUR 400 million, which Masmovil will use to support its EUR 2 billion bid to take over rival Euskaltel, according to the report.
Onivia was created in late 2019, when a consortium led by infrastructure fund Macquarie Capital acquired Masmovil’s urban fibre network covering Spain’s five largest cities and their metropolitan areas. Telecom industry veteran Jose Antonio Vazquez Blanco, a former Telecable CEO, was subsequently appointed as chief executive of a company that describes itself as Spain’s first independent and neutral provider of wholesale only FTTH services.
