Asterion Industrial Partners, an independent investment management firm based in Madrid, has announced it has acquired Telefónica’s microwave radiolink portfolio in Spain through a carve-out process. The transaction was signed and closed on 31 March 2020.
The assets consist of a portfolio of antennae and radio electronic equipment for 10,800 microwave links (~13,000 circuits), connecting Telefónica’s mobile towers and other enterprise clients’ sites to their terrestrial fibre networks, mainly in low-density areas.
The radiolink network is one of the largest in Spain and has best-in-class interconnection with Spain’s deepest fibre network. The acquisition enables the build out of a rural-focused wholesale digital transport platform in Spain as it provides essential connectivity of isolated areas, providing backhaul transport for mobile networks and the capacity to meet high-speed broadband demand in areas that are not economical to connect with fibre.
The investment is the second partnership between Asterion and Telefónica in critical telecoms infrastructure underpinned with long-term contracts. It is in line with Asterion’s overall investment strategy, which has a long-term commitment to both Spain and the telecoms sector as part of its investment mandate. The transaction also complements Asterion’s Industrial Infra Fund I existing investments in France, Spain and the UK in the energy services, renewables, data center and renewable distributed energy sectors. The company exceeded its target for Infra Fund I which closed with EUR1.1 billion at the beginning of 2020.
[…] news also comes at the same time that Telefonica announced it is to sell its Microwave Radiolink portfolio to […]