News
Spanish operator strikes joint FTTH investment deal with Orange.
Masmovil late on Tuesday completed a €160 million capital increase, helping to cover the cost of its recent acquisitions.
The Spanish telco issued 8.18 million new shares, each priced at €19.55, to various institutional investors. Among them was private equity firm Providence, which is set to become Masmovil’s biggest single shareholder after agreeing a separate deal earlier this month to provide long-term investment of €165 million in the form of a convertible bond.
Masmovil said the funds raised by Tuesday’s share issue will help to pay for recent acquisitions, specifically Pepephone, which it acquired in April for €158 million, and Yoigo, which Masmovil agreed to buy from Telia in June in a deal worth €612 million.
The announcement comes days after Masmovil and Orange Spain agreed to co-invest in a new, shared fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) network covering 1 million premises in total.
Each operator will be responsible for building an FTTH network passing 500,000 premises. Masmovil will deploy its half of the network in areas with little or no existing fibre coverage, while Orange’s half will be deployed in areas where there are already competing networks.
The agreement, announced last Friday, stems from the concessions attached to Orange’s acquisition of Jazztel in 2015. That same remedy package also saw Masmovil acquire FTTH infrastructure covering 720,000 households from Orange.
Masmovil said the combination of Friday’s co-investment deal, and its earlier acquisition of some of Orange’s fibre assets, will help it to reach its target of providing FTTH coverage to 2.3 million premises before the end of 2018.
