Bird & Bird LLP advised the private equity firm Antin Infrastructure Partners, the sole shareholder of Eurofiber, on the formation of a joint venture between Eurofiber and Vattenfall.
Antin is an experienced investor in the telecommunications infrastructure sector and has many years of investment experience in the fibre sector through investments in Eurofiber, CityFibre (UK), Lyntia (Spain) and Firstlight (USA). Eurofiber has been developing, operating and expanding its digital open access infrastructure for 20 years and has a great deal of know-how, experience and expertise in building and operating fibre optic networks in urban centres. The strategy aims to further expand within Europe, with partnerships to develop Fibre-to-the-Home (FttH) networks in urban areas being a central part of this expansion strategy.
The resulting joint venture based in Berlin is intended to accelerate the capital's development into a digital smart city. In the coming years, more than 500,000 households and companies, initially in the centre of Berlin, will be provided with access to high-performance glass fibre connections. The new fibre network will also provide a digital infrastructure for 5G and IoT connectivity and is open to all broadband providers (open access).
The contracts signed at the beginning of September 2020 are subject to the approval of the antitrust authorities and are expected to be executed immediately after approval.
Antin Infrastructure Partners and Eurofiber were advised by the following Bird & Bird lawyers: Partner Dr. Hans Peter Leube, LL.M., associates Marianne Nawroth, Michael Maier and Tamara Böhmert (all Frankfurt), associate Jan Medele (Düsseldorf), all Corporate/ M&A; Partner Dr. Michael Jünemann and associate Timo Förster (both Frankfurt), Finance; partner Dr. René Voigtländer and associate Mirjam Wilhelm, LL.M. (both Munich), Foreign Trades/ Compliance; partner Dr. Jörg Witting (Düsseldorf), Antitrust and Data Protection; counsel Valerian Jenny and associate Holger Niedenführ, (both Frankfurt), Telecommunications-Regulatory; partner Dr. Barbara Geck, associate Franziska Fiedler (both Frankfurt) and associate Dr. Florian Kessenich (Hamburg), all Employment, partner Mascha Grundmann (Frankfurt) and associate Dr. Constantin Eikel (Düsseldorf) both Trademarks.