Paris, 9 March 2023 – Eurofiber has announced its intention to acquire B2B telecom providers Appliwave and Avelia from its current owner Septeo. Building on earlier acquisitions, Eurofiber is further strengthening its position in the French B2B telecom market. The intended acquisition is subject to customary regulatory approvals in France and is expected to be completed in the course of Q2 2023.
Appliwave is a Paris-based B2B infrastructure telecom operator that provides enterprises and wholesale customers with FTTO connectivity. Founded in 2010, it was acquired in 2019 by Septeo, a company specialized in IT solutions for legal and real estate professionals. In recent years, Appliwave had deployed its own fiberoptic networks in Paris, Lyon, Annecy and Reims, with a total length of over 2,600 kilometers. Its backbone network covers the whole of France and extends to Germany.
Avelia, headquartered in Nice, was founded in 2003 and was acquired by Septeo in early 2022. It has a large customer base of enterprises and wholesale partners in Paris and Nice. Avelia provides them with network security, telecoms and internet services.
Appliwave and Avelia will become part of Eurofiber France. With this acquisition, the Eurofiber Group is expanding its footprint in France, further executing its growth strategy. Earlier acquisitions were Lille-based Eurafibre, Eura DC and ATE (2019), Lumos (Nantes, 2020), FullSave (Toulouse and Bordeaux regions, 2020) and Netiwan (Montpellier region, 2021).
Pierre Cassier, CEO of Eurofiber France: “We are excited to welcome Appliwave and Avelia within the group. They extend our French footprint with a dense network in Paris and strong momentum in Lyon, combining network assets, market knowledge and commercial achievements. Together with the existing management and staff, who already have done an excellent job building these companies, we will provide best-in-class services to a wider group of customers and accelerate growth.”
About Eurofiber
Eurofiber has been a provider of industry-leading open digital infrastructure since 2000. Utilizing our own fiberoptic network and datacenters, we provide smart, open, future-proof cloud infrastructure and connectivity solutions to companies, government bodies and non-profit organizations. Customers have complete freedom to choose the services, applications and providers they need, allowing them to tap into the full potential of digital innovation. Eurofiber has a 66,000 km fiberoptic network in the Netherlands, Belgium, France and Germany. This network is expanded by 50 km per week on average. Eurofiber companies Dataplace, FullSave and Eura DC operate eleven datacenters in the Netherlands and France. Supplementing that vital infrastructure, we also offer interconnectivity between nearly all carrier-neutral datacenters in The Netherlands and Belgium through the DCspine platform. Eurofiber is laying the foundation under the digital society, which is why the Dutch government has assigned Eurofiber the status of ‘vital infrastructure’.
The Eurofiber Group consists of: Eurofiber (Netherlands, Belgium, France and Germany), Eurofiber Cloud Infra (including DCspine, MatrixMind and Dataplace (The Netherlands)), FullSave, Lumos, Netiwan, Eurafibre, ATE and Eura DC (France). Eurofiber participates in joint ventures Vattenfall Eurofiber (Germany) and Unifiber (with Proximus, Belgium) and has an investment partnership with German NGN Fiber Network.
Eurofiber is backed by Antin Infrastructure Partners, and PGGM infrastructure Fund as a minority shareholder. Antin is a leading private equity firm focused on infrastructure. With over EUR30bn in assets under management across its Flagship, Mid Cap and NextGen investment strategies, Antin targets investments in the digital, energy and environment, transport and social infrastructure sectors. PGGM Infrastructure Fund is an open-ended fund with over EUR13.5bn assets under management in infrastructure investments and active in the digital infrastructure sector since 2010.
Contact
Eurofiber
Armand Rouw
Head of Corporate Communications
+31 6 3485 1722
armand.rouw@eurofiber.com