Cinven clinches €510m fibre broadband move
PRIVATE equity group Cinven has won a hotly contested auction to buy a Spanish fibre broadband company and take advantage of sector’s blossoming role in Europe and emerging markets.
The group, based in Paternoster Square, will pay €510m (£413m) to carve out the telecoms unit of Gas Natural Fenosa, a Spanish utility company.
The unit, Gas Natural Fenosa Telecomunicaciones, has fibre broadband cable infrastructure across Spain and a clutch of Latin American countries including Guatemala, Columbia and Honduras.
Cinven partner Jorge Quemada, who led the deal, told City A.M.: “The fibre optic sector in Europe is a pretty unknown sector and we see a lot of opportunities going forward.”
The group, which was advised in the UK by UBS, beat competition from five other bidders in the final round of the auction to land the company.
The deal is the ninth from Cinven’s recently-raised fifth fund, and builds on similar tech deals such as previous investments in French cable firm Numericable and Dutch peer Ziggo.
BEHIND THE DEAL
UBS
1 Cinven used the services of UBS’s well regarded telecommunications, technology and media investment banking team in London to help land the telecoms infrastructure outfit.
2 UBS’s TMT team has previously worked on a host of deals for Vodafone, including its €7.2bn agreement to acquire Ono, the deal to buy Kabel Deutschland and the firm’s sale of its stake in Verizon.
3 The tech team is led by Christian Lesueur, managing director and head of TMT investment banking for Europe, middle east and Africa
Also advising…
Also advising Cinven on the deal was 360 Corporate, a Spanish-based corporate advisory firm founded by a host of former corporate finance chiefs from Schroder Salomon Smith Barney. Financing for the deal was provided by UBS and Barclays.