Watson Farley & Williams (“WFW”) has advised PATRIZIA’s European Infrastructure Fund II (“EIF II”) on its first investment in a Fibre-to-the-Home (“FTTH”) platform in Spain, through which PATRIZIA will funnel its pipeline investments from FTTH operators. The platform will be overseen by two managers with 50 years combined experience in the Spanish telecoms sector.
PATRIZIA aims to grow its Spanish platform into a €60m local broadband business by working with operators to integrate their existing business into a reliable, high-speed broadband services platform for towns and cities across Spain, enhancing residents’ quality of life and narrowing the urban/rural digital divide.
The platform has already invested in two mid-market domestic telecoms operators in the southern region of Cádiz, one of Spain’s main tourist destinations. The FTTH network for these first two investments can reach over 85,000 homes combined and could potentially serve a total population over 110,000 people across neighbouring municipalities.
This transaction will be PATRIZIA ‘s sixth EIF II platform investment, growing the fund’s committed investments and co-investments to over €800m.
PATRIZIA is one of the world’s most experienced infrastructure investors, offering a broad range of investment solutions across direct equity, private debt and listed equity. Based in Augsburg, Germany, and with 28 offices worldwide, it made its first direct infrastructure investment in 1998 since when it has made 110+ infrastructure investments.
The WFW Madrid Corporate team that advised PATRIZIA was led by Partner Javier Ester, working closely with Senior Associate Román Pazos and Associates Mar Clavijo and Ángel de Martín, as well as Real Estate Senior Associate Ignacio Cacho. Employment adviceDone was provided by Partner Victoria Truchuelo.
Javier commented: “We are delighted to have advised PATRIZIA on their first foray into Spain’s telecoms sector. This investment is strategically important to our client, helping consolidate and expand their international infrastructure footprint and we look forward to continuing to help them achieve their strategic goals both in Spain and internationally. Being instructed on this transaction highlights WFW’s standing as a go-to-firm for infrastructure transactions in Spain”.
