A new telecommunications center takes shape, dedicated to the business sector. The protagonists are F2i (which came out of Metroweb with the sale to OpenFiber) and Marguerite (the Luxembourg fund participated by Cdp, by the French of Caisse des depots and by the Germans of Kfw) have signed an agreement with a group of investors to buy at 15,6 .89,81 per share is 2200% of Mc-Link, the company that owns a 50,5 km fiber optic network worth 2 million in all. The operation will take place through 80i Fiber, which, held 2% by the Secondo Fondo F20i and 94,1% by Marguerite, already owns 57,8% of Infracom after having acquired it at the end of June from Abertis for XNUMX million. McLink is a historic Internet provider and has always focused on the business segment with quality services.
“After the acquisition of Infracom completed on 27 July – reads a note – F2i and Marguerite increase their presence in the telecom sector in Italy. F2i and Marguerite intend to integrate Mc-Link and Infracom into a single platform through which to aggregate other operators active in the fragmented market of telecommunications services aimed at business customers”.
The closing of the transaction is subject to the occurrence of certain conditions precedent including the approval by the Presidency of the Council of Ministers and is expected in the second half of September. If the acquisition goes through, a mandatory takeover bid will be triggered on the shares owned by the minorities of Mc-Link, which is listed on the Aim market of Borsa Italiana, where the shares currently earn 4,46%, at 15,45 euros.
MC-link operates in the national ICT services market and closed 2016 with a turnover of approximately Euro 43,5 million, an industrial margin (ebitda) of Euro 9,1 million and a net financial position of Euro 17,5 millions.
Marguerite is a Luxembourg fund created with the support of European public financial institutions: Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations, Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, European Investment Bank, Instituto de Crédito Oficial, KfW, PKO Bank Polski.
The new pole focuses on ultra-broadband and it cannot be excluded that the operation announced today could in the future be integrated with the more complex project launched by Open Fiber (50% Enel and 50% Cdp) to bring the fiber network at contained prices in throughout Italy, in 271 cities in rich areas but also in market failure areas through Infratel tenders. F2i in fact, after the sale Metroweb had an option to enter Open Fiber which it did not exercise by the end of 2016 and which has now expired. But nothing rules out the fact that it may return to it at the beginning of 2018 when Open Fiber, after launching its projects, will reopen access to capital for new infrastructure shareholders. A fundamental step will be the project financing currently being completed and the 3,5 billion "jumbo" loan necessary to implement the business plan net of public funding. A first check for 500 million should arrive this week from Unicredit, Bnp Paribas and SocGen; another 500 are expected in the autumn by the EIB which visited the Open Fiber headquarters in Rome last week.
