CVC DIF is in exclusive talks to acquire close-to an 88% stake in Celeste, a French B2B digital infrastructure operator from Infravia Capital Partners, for an undisclosed sum.
The investment marks CVC DIF’s first investment from its latest value-add fund, which invests in companies with “strong competitive positions”, offering significant growth potential, mostly in digital, energy transition, sustainable transport and healthcare sectors, the company said.
Celeste, which is headquartered in Paris and was founded in 2001, serves more than 20,000 businesses and 3,000 municipalities in France and Switzerland, relying on a fully owned and operated infrastructure platform comprising 13,600km of proprietary fibre network and six data centres.
As part of the transaction, Nicolas Aubé, founder and CEO of Celeste, together with the management team, will reinvest their proceeds into a “significant minority stake”, ensuring strong alignment with CVC DIF. Infravia Capital Partners will fully exit its investment following the completion of the transaction.
Willem Jansonius, a managing partner at CVC DIF and head of DIF value-add strategy, said: “Our investment in Celeste underlines our expertise and focus on resilient digital infrastructure which provide companies with critical services.
“Celeste’s solid proprietary network, integrated resilient model and best-in-class quality of services gives the company a highly attractive competitive positioning. We look forward to working closely with Celeste management to support their exciting growth story over the year ahead.”
Aubé added: “We look forward to the next chapter of our growth journey with CVC DIF. CVC DIF is a highly experienced infrastructure investor with a deep understanding of the fibre and cloud sectors.
“Their support will enable Celeste to pursue its expansion, accelerate market consolidation and continue to deliver secured, resilient and high-performance digital infrastructure services to our clients.”
The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of this year, subject to customary conditions and the completion of the required consultation process with French employee representative bodies.
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