Telefónica has announced the incorporation of the company Bluevía Fibra, intended to be the vehicle for investment and deployment of its fiber optic network in the Spanish market, and to which the operator will admit a new partner in the coming days.
The new subsidiary of Telefónica, which officially started its activities on July 5, has as its corporate purpose the operation and operation of a fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) network for the provision of FTTH access services in big. bitstream and other connectivity services, excluding services.
Bluevía Fibra, which was born with an initial share capital of 3,000 euros, has Telefónica España Subsidiaries as sole partner, the company that manages the divisions of the different activities of the company in Spain, such as Movistar Prosegur Alarmas, TGT, Telefónica Audiovisual Digital (TAD), Telefónica Audiovisual Services (TSA), Telefónica Digital Education and Telyco. Telefónica España Subsidiaries, formerly Telefónica de Contents (it was renamed in 2021 with a change of corporate purpose), is directly controlled by parent company Telefónica.
Likewise, the sole director of the new company is Nicolás Oriol Enciso, Secretary General and Head of Regulation of Telefónica Spain itself.
The approach launched by the company is in any case ambitious. The CEO of Telefónica, Ángel Vilá, announced last February the creation of a fiber investment vehicle for rural areas in Spain, with the aim of achieving coverage of more than five million households passed with this next generation network. Of these, 2.5 million real estate units have already been built by the operator itself. Overall, Telefónica had a fleet of fiber optic lines in the Spanish market of 27.2 million, at the end of the first quarter of the year. The operator plans the total migration to fiber in 2024, the year it celebrates its first centenary, and the shutdown of the copper network in 2025.
The company has also communicated its intention to admit partners, as it has done in countries such as Germany, Brazil, Chile or Colombia. In the process, which could be completed in the coming days, Telefónica has received advice from BBVA and AZ Capital. The company’s objective, throughout the process, was to sell 49% of the capital of this new fiber vehicle, to raise nearly 1,000 million euros.
From now on, the intention of the operator is to conclude the transaction with the new investment partners, before the end of the current month of July, even if he does not want to fall into haste either. Groups interested in the fiber optic vehicle include Allianz Partners, the Canadian financial group Caisse de Dépôt et Placement du Québec (CDPQ) and the French company Vauban.
In this sense, Allianz and CDPQ are already partners of Telefónica in its fiber optic vehicles in two of its strategic markets, Germany and Brazil, respectively.
At the end of April, as part of the latest management reorganization of Telefónica Spain, Emilio Gayo appointed Luis Rivera as CEO of the new fiberco.
Investments
The truth is that the fiber optic market is experiencing a boiling moment in the Spanish market, with the entry of investment funds interested in these companies. Last May, AXA IM Alts and Swiss Life Asset Managers announced that through a new joint venture, had agreed to acquire Lyntia Networks, one of the leading companies in this segment in Spain, from Antin Infrastructure Partners. The transaction, valued at nearly €2 billion, is subject to customary regulatory approvals and is expected to close by the end of the year.
Previously, at the end of 2021, the Red Eléctrica group had agreed to sell KKR a 49% stake in Reintel, its dark fiber optic division, for a total price of 971 million euros. The energy company indicated that with this transaction, it had obtained a capital gain of 900 million. In this way, KKR has expanded its presence in the telecommunications sector in Spain, where it is already one of the reference shareholders of MásMóvil.
In turn, last autumn, the Swedish group EQT Private Equity reached an agreement for the sale of 80% of the capital of Adamo, one of the main Spanish operators of optical fiber in rural areas, to the Ardian Infrastructure fund. . The transaction was valued at around 800 million euros.