Private equity firm Doughty Hanson & Co. says it will acquire Eurofiber, the owner of the second largest independent fiber network in the Netherlands. Doughty Hanson acquires the firm from Reggeborgh, an investment vehicle of the Wessels family. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Reggeborgh will continue to hold a significant minority stake in Eurofiber.
Founded in 2000 and headquartered in Maarssen in the Netherlands, Eurofiber and its network infrastructure supports more than 25% of Dutch Internet traffic and 50% of Dutch mobile traffic, waterways, and electricity management information, Doughty Hanson asserts. Eurofiber’s open access network spans more than 12,000 km and connects more than 4,500 locations.
Eurofiber is one of only two companies in the Netherlands that has sufficient nationwide coverage to target major nationwide contracts, Doughty Hanson believes. (The other is national incumbent KPN.) Eurofiber and its new owners expect to significantly expand the network because of strong demand for fiber infrastructure.
Eurofibers clients include telecommunications businesses, Internet service providers, utilities, office locations, and municipalities.
Pascal Keutgens at Doughty Hanson said, “Eurofiber has an impressive track record of growth, which we expect to see accelerate in the future. Fiber is a fast-growing market as enterprises increasingly move away from copper-based legacy infrastructure, and as usage of smartphones, heavy data Internet services, and cloud computing increases. The management have impressed us with their ambition, their experience, and their strategic vision of the market.”
Alex Goldblum, Eurofiber CEO, added, “We have very rapidly built up an excellent relationship with the team at Doughty Hanson, who have clearly demonstrated their understanding of the sector, as well as their track record in the Netherlands and across Europe. We are looking forward to working with them as we build our customer base, create jobs, and successfully grow the business.”
The transaction is subject to the usual regulatory requirements and is expected to close in May 2012.
This is Reggeborgh's second recent sale of infrastructure assets. Last November, KPN announced that it had agreed to buy much of Reggeborgh's stake in their Reggefiber FTTH infrastructure joint venture (see "KPN seeks control of Reggefiber to strengthen FTTH hand").