Zayo declined to comment on which particular markets in Europe it is interested in, but it is thought that the company could target key financial centres in Paris, Frankfurt and London. The company might also look to bring its considerable experience in acquisitions to Germany, where there is a deeply fragmented metro market.
“Zayo is an incredibly disciplined telecoms group that invests infrastructure where it makes sense both as part of our strategy and for our customers,” said Glenn Russo, EVP of corporate strategy and development at Zayo Group.
“In Europe, I expect us to look at growth opportunities within our customer base as well as very selective opportunities and potentially acquisitions that help us leverage what we have built at our core.”
Zayo completed its acquisition of AboveNet yesterday bringing to a close one of the biggest acquisitions ever seen in the metro fibre market.
The combined company will operate in 45 states in the US and seven countries across North America and Europe with a network spanning over 61,000 route miles with 4.6 million miles of fibre. This will help support approximately 9,000 buildings including major data centres, enterprise buildings and cellular towers.
Plans to integrate the two companies have been ongoing since the acquisition was announced on March 19, and include physical network integration and implementing a single set of processes and IT systems. A single set of products has been established, while network interconnection work has also been initiated and is expected to be mostly completed in the next three months.
“We have done 20 acquisitions in the last five years and built what we believe is a very good set of IT systems. We’ve basically had a lot of practice at combining organisations and businesses,” said Russo.
“We also believe strongly in moving quickly as that means you can make the most of the combined networks which benefits us and our customers.”
