Poland's Play Communications has signed an initial agreement to acquire Katowice-based company 3S for a total of PLN 410 million. All of 3S's founders will sell their shares, as will the Enterprise Investors fund, reports Rpkom.pl. 3S owns a fibre network and data centres.
S3 reported 2018 revenues of PLN 88 million, with EBITDA at PLN 32 million.
Play has been working with S5 for 10 years. The acquisition was to some extent prompted by fears that a change in owners could lessen Play's access to the infrastructure of S3. The infrastructure is necessary for the mobile operator to connect its base stations.
With the deal, Play now plans to develop data centre and fibre network services for its business subscribers.
3S Group includes several companies: 3S, 3S Data Center, 3S Fibertech and 3S Box. 3S Fibertech is the operator of the fibre network; it serves several hundred corporate customers. The company owns a 3,800 km fibre network in five regions of Southern Poland. Its data centres, with a joint total size of 5,000 square metres, are based in Krakow, Bytom, Katowice and Warsaw.
The management board of Play believes the acquisition will support the strategy of the mobile operator and let it control the costs of data transmission to base stations, as well as those for colocation.
Play will fund the deal using external funds and cash on hand.
Enterprise Investors owned 76 percent of 3S. Founders Jacek Groyecki, Zbigniew Szkaradnik and Wojciech Apel owned 8 percent each.
