The €246bn Dutch asset manager PGGM has paid an undisclosed amount for a minority stake in Eurofiber, a fibre-optic network firm owned by Antin Infrastructure Partners.
According to media reports last month, Antin had launched the stake sale, in a deal that valued Eurofiber at more than €1.5bn.
Antin acquired Eurofiber for €875m in May 2015. Under Antin’s ownership, Eurofiber has added more than 19,000km of fibre network and eight data centres, having invested close to €400m from 2014-2019 and completed a number of add-on acquisitions.
In an announcement today, Antin said it has sold a minority stake in Eurofiber to PGGM and Antin will continue to hold a majority stake in the business. Eurofiber provides fibre digital infrastructure dedicated to business-to-business customers in the Netherlands and Belgium with a growing presence in France and recent market entry into Germany.
Stephane Ifker, senior partner with Antin Infrastructure Partners, said: “Together we will continue supporting Eurofiber as it prepares for its next phase of growth. Antin is convinced Eurofiber is well-positioned to both continue its organic growth in the Netherlands, Belgium and France as well as expand via M&A and strategic partnerships across the fragmented European fibre market.
“The recent entry into the German market in partnership with Vattenfall is a perfect illustration of that strategy.”
Robert Hartog, head of communication infrastructure investments at PGGM, said: “With this acquisition, the PGGM infrastructure fund has added a new and promising asset to our already well-diversified portfolio of infrastructure investments.
“The digitisation of work and daily life clearly provides interesting opportunities for long-term pension capital and we are excited to work with Antin and Eurofiber to grow the company and enable it to continue its leading position in the market.”
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