Patrizia’s infrastructure arm has acquired two broadband and fibre operators in Spain on behalf of its European fund and launched a new fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) platform to provide services and make acquisitions in the country.

Patrizia Infrastructure’s European Infrastructure Fund II (EIFII) has invested an undisclosed sum to buy Wifi Sancti Petri and Airwifi, two mid-market operators located in the southern province of Cadiz.

Patrizia said Wifi Sancti Petri and Airwifi are the first two companies in the newly-launched FTTH platform Localcom which seeks to provide broadband services to villages and towns across Spain.

Localcom is expected to acquire additional operators, the manager said, adding that Patrizia Infrastructure will ”deploy an active asset management strategy to drive the growth of the platform” into a €60m local broadband player.

The latest deals represent the sixth platform investment for EIFII, taking the fund’s committed investments and co-investments to over €800m. The transaction is also the first in Spain for the EIF fund series.

Matteo Andreoletti, the head of infrastructure equity, Europe and North America, at Patrizia, said: “The huge demands to digitalise and smarten up our cities across the world is accelerating by the day, yet the smaller towns and villages have a vital role to play in this transition.

“With these strategic investments, we have entered Spain’s €1.5bn local telecoms market, which provides a hugely exciting opportunity to generate value and attractive returns for our investors by consolidating a highly fragmented market.”

Eduardo de Roda, Patrizia country head for Spain, said: “With these strategic deals, we are excited to expand our infrastructure footprint in Spain and continue the growth of our €2bn real assets portfolio here.” 

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