elanta will invest 60 million in “strategic operations”
ELANTA TO INVEST 60 MILLION IN “STRATEGIC OPERATIONS” TO COMPLEMENT ITS FIBER-OPTIC COVERAGE
Fiber-optic neutral operator elanta, owned by French fund Antin Infrastructure Partners, plans to invest 60 million euros this year in “strategic operations” to complement its network coverage in Spain, according to the company’s CEO, Andrea Liboreiro, in an interview with Europa Press.
“We are planning investments of approximately 60 million euros. We have gone from being a company that initially focused on bringing together large M&A operations (mergers and acquisitions) and now what we are looking for are much more strategic operations, that is, operations that add value in terms of both the number of clients and the marketing capacity, as we already have coverage in many areas” she stressed.
In this way, the CEO has indicated that elanta’s M&A strategy is currently based on searching for what they call the ‘local champion’, that is, the operator that “really succeeds in an area”.
“Being successful locally is very complicated. It is an in-store sale, with local TV content, and it is a loyal customer. We always look for what we call the ‘local champion’, the one who has been doing really well for years. Why? Because what we want is for the network to continue growing with us. Improving the quality of the network and the speed, also improves the offer for the end customer. This allows the local operator to continue growing and us to open the network to other operators”, she explained.
Specifically, on February 16, the company announced its latest operation: acqusition number 137 of elanta’s fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) network, adding 85,000 homes passed and 11,000 new connections.
Thus, elanta’s network coverage has now reached 2.9 million homes and the company has around 625,000 connected customers. It has FTTH networks in 38 Spanish provinces and 711 municipalities, especially in medium-sized towns on the East coast and in the South of Spain.
Regarding the business model, Liboreiro considers elanta to be a reference partner in the sector and emphasizes that the company has as clients some of the main telecoms in the country, such as Telefónica and MásMóvil.
In this way, the company has been acquiring assets from different “successful” local operators, but whose networks are not ready to be marketed by large telecoms. This implies an investment in capex to provide them with the capacity to be marketed by “other interesting clients”, such as MásMóvil or Telefónica, which do not have a footprint in these areas because “historically they have had greater commercial development in large cities”.
“So, in areas with smaller populations, they make use of third-party networks that have to be adapted to the characteristics of a national operator, which are not necessarily those of a local operator,” explained the Galician director.
ANTIN WILL LEAVE AT THE RIGHT TIME
As to whether elanta has been approached for a possible purchase of its business, Liboreiro reminded that Antin Infrastructure Partners is a fund specialized in infrastructure and “will always look for an exit”, given that “there is no fund that stays forever”.
“I believe that Antin, in the end, is going to look for the exit (…) at the right time, but above all at the right valuation. At the moment we do not have any sale process open. I believe that Antin will leave or will want to leave when the valuation is right and the time is right, because it feels it has an asset of great value,” he said.
In that regard, she stressed that one of elanta’s main attractions is not just its network assets, but networks with customers. “That’s the key. I think we are indeed a very valuable asset and really wanted one. And I believe that Antin will seek, as all investment funds do, their moment to exit at the valuation they consider to be the right one,” he insisted.
Original article: https://www.europapress.es/economia/noticia-elanta-invertira-60-millones-operaciones-estrategicas-complementar-cobertura-fibra-optica-20240225130254.html