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FOLLOWING THE RECENT ACQUISITION OF INFRACOM, THE ANNOUNCED STRATEGY OF GROWTH MATERIALIZES IN THE MARKET SECTOR OF TLC SERVICES FOR BUSINESS WHICH UTILISE FIBRE-OPTIC NETWORKS AND DATA CENTRES INFRASTRUCTURE
Milan, 31 July 2017. F2i and Marguerite have reached an agreement with a group of investors for the purchase of 89.81% of the capital of MC-link S.p.A., at an amount of 50.5 million euro.
MC-link, an operator on the Italian ICT services market with registered office in Trento and operational headquarters in Rome, closed the year 2016 with turnover of 43.5 million euro, a business margin (ebitda) of 9.1 million euro and a net financial position of approximately 17.5 million euro.
The transaction shall be completed through 2i Fiber S.p.A., a company that already owns 94.1% of Infracom S.p.A. and which is 80% held by the F2i Second Fund, with the other 20% belonging to Marguerite.
The major infrastructure assets of MC-link include an extensive fibre-optic network measuring approximately 2,200 km, 7 MAN (Metropolitan Area Networks) and four data centres, two of them in Rome, one in Milan (in the Via Caldera business park) and one in Trento.
Following the acquisition of Infracom, completed on 27 July, F2i and Marguerite have further increased their presence in Italy’s telecom sector. F2i and Marguerite plan to combine MC-link and Infracom on a single platform to which other operators active in the fragmented market of telecommunications services for businesses will be added. The goal is to bring into being a national player possessing strong managerial skills and know-how, financial solidity and adequate levels of efficiency and quality for the market for web-access services provided using MPLS technology and value-added cloud services.
The operation is scheduled to be closed in the second half of the month of September and it is subject to the happening of some suspensive conditions including the approval by the Italian Presidency of the Council of Ministers. MC-link is a company listed on Italy’s AIM – Alternative Investment Market. Following completion of the acquisition, an obligatory takeover will go into effect for purchase of the minority holdings.
With this purchase, the funds of F2i are currently invested in 17 companies operating in the infrastructure sector, in 8 different sub-compartments. In annual aggregate terms, this platform generates over 3.1 billion euro in turnover and 1.2 billion euro in business margin (ebitda) while employing 13 thousand workers.
The transaction also represents Marguerite’s sixteenth investment in 12 different countries of the EU, confirming its extensive presence in Europe.
F2i and Marguerite were supported by financial advisor Cassiopea Partners and legal advisors Giliberti, Triscornia & Associatesi, while business consulting was handled by Analysys Mason and accounting and tax affairs were assigned to KPMG.
The financial advisor to the seller was Plus Value Consulting, while Valli Manuso & Associati, GOP, Studio Grimaldi and Studio Gullotta acted as legal advisors.
(*) F2i, acronym of Fondi italiani per le infrastrutture, is an Italian asset management company (SGR or Società di Gestione del Risparmio), created in 2007, headed by Chief Executive Officer Renato Ravanelli. F2i is the largest infrastructure fund operating in Italy and is among the principal funds in Europe. F2i’s first and second fund, i.e. Primo Fondo and Secondo Fondo, have to date received commitments for approximately Euro 3.1 billion, approximately 90% of which are already invested in various of domestic infrastructure sectors (airports, gas distribution, water services, renewable energy, telecommunications, waste-to-energy, logical networks, social infrastructure, highways, logistics).
(**) The 2020 European Fund for Energy, Climate Change and Infrastructure (“Marguerite”) was established with the backing of the European Commission and six of Europe’s leading public financial institutions (Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations, Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, European Investment Bank, Instituto de Crédito Oficial, KfW, and PKO Bank Polski) to make capital-intensive infrastructure investments within the EU. The Marguerite Fund is advised by Marguerite Adviser S.A., an independent advisory company (www.marguerite.com).