Eurofiber is selling its 50.01% stake in Belgian open-access fibre-to-the-home network Unifiber to its joint venture partner Proximus for €75m.
The transaction increases Proximus’ ownership of fibre-to-the-home in Wallonia and gives Unifiber an implied enterprise value of approximately €560m.
Unifiber was launched in 2021 to accelerate the deployment of fibre-to-the-home infrastructure across medium-density areas in Wallonia. The venture has now passed approximately 230,000 homes and businesses out of a target footprint of more than 300,000 premises.
Stijn Bijnens, CEO of the Proximus Group, said: Unifiber has made an important contribution to the fibre rollout and digitalisation of Wallonia. We have decided to take ownership of this very strategic asset at financially disciplined terms.
“While the transaction increases reported CapEx during the remaining build phase, the underlying economics are attractive: we will neutralise Proximus network access costs to Unifiber and benefit from increased network utilisation, while the integration will create financial and operational synergies and strengthen Proximus’ ownership of critical fibre infrastructure.”
Unifiber will continue to operate as a standalone entity within Proximus.
Eric Kuisch, chief operating officer, Eurofiber, said: “Together with Proximus, we have successfully built a strong foundation for open fibre-to-the-home infrastructure in Wallonia. We are proud of what has been achieved with the Unifiber team, which has successfully delivered on its objectives and created a strong foundation in the market.
“With the network rollout well on track, this is the right moment to transfer our stake to Proximus. At the same time, this transaction allows us to further sharpen our strategic focus on our core activities: delivering B2B digital infrastructure services across Europe, including Belgium, which remains an important market for Eurofiber.”
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