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The purchase will see Deutsche Glasfaser merged with fellow fibre operator inexio

EQT and Omers Infrastructure are shaking up the fibre ecosystem in Germany, having purchased Deutsche Glasfaser for an unreported sum. The deal valued Glasfaser at over €2.5 billion, suggested unnamed sources as reported by Reuters.

EQT, a Swedish private equity fund, and Canadian pensions investor Omers Infrastructure will soon own stakes of 51% and 49%, respectively, in the German fibre specialist.

The transaction will be finalised in the second quarter of this year, subject to the antitrust regulator’s approval.
 
The fibre rollout in Germany has been markedly slow, with penetration far lower than in most other European markets. But while these figures arguably reflect poorly on the government’s fibre strategy, they offer a huge opportunity for enterprising fibre companies like Deutsche Glasfaser.
 
It perhaps comes as no surprise then, that in October last year EQT purchased inexio, a company committed to providing fibre to 2 million rural and suburban households by 2030.
 
Now, it has been announced that EQT will be merging Deutsche Glasfaser with inexio as part of an overall strategy towards accelerating Germany’s rural fibre coverage.  
 
“We are excited to welcome EQT and OMERS as our new owners and we are fully aligned to further develop Germany’s digital infrastructure. With the industry experience and financial support from EQT and OMERS, Deutsche Glasfaser is well-positioned to take the next step on our growth journey and accelerate the fibre roll-out across Germany,” said Uwe Nickl, CEO of Deutsche Glasfaser.
 
Deutsche Glasfaser has been making impressive progress in the past few months, having reached 630,000 homes and businesses in 400 cities by the start of this year. At the end of 2019, the company announced it would be expanding its partnership with Vodafone to include FTTH, and more recently still announced a network sharing deal with incumbent Deutsche Telekom. 
 
In total, Deutsche Glasfaser and inexio will be pumping over €7 billion into rural FTTH deployment in coming years.
 
“Deutsche Glasfaser and Inexio currently connect a combined 250,000 homes a year to fibre-optic grids and we are planning to double that in the medium term,” said EQT partner Matthias Fackler.
 
 
Deutsche Glasfaser’s CEO Uwe Nickl spoke at last year’s Connected Germany event. Keep your eyes peeled for updates about this year’s instalment.
 
 

 

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