TDF Fibre is a wholesale French fibre business owned by TDF (79.5%) and Banque des Territoires (20.5%).
DIF says its plans to invest in the fibreco involves the acquisition of the TDF Fibre, as well as Lumière Fibre, a wholly owned subsidiary of TDF that houses its engineering, maintenance, fibre roll-out and construction services business units.
Reports circulated in July last year that TDF were exploring a sale of its fibre business, and insiders at the time said it could be valued at over a €1billion.
TDF were reported to be seeking between €1.3 billion to €1.6 billion for the business.
DIF Capital Partners is an infrastructure fund with €17 billion of assets under management. It will make the acquisition via its DIF Infrastructure VII Fund, which closed fundraising in March at €4.4 billion.
DIF VII targets infrastructure investments, often concession-based or with long-term offtake agreements offering stable and predictable cash flows as well as attractive risk-adjusted returns.
Sectors covered include transportation, (renewable) energy, digital infrastructure and utilities.
As part of its fibre business, TDF run four public-initiative networks under long-tern concession agreements from the French government.
Public-initiative networks are a part of the French government’s National Broadband Scheme, and essentially serve to fund fibre expansion to rural and semi-rural areas.
In its 2023 annual results report, TDF revealed that its fibre business’ revenue increased by 37.6% between 2022 and 2023, from €51.8 million to €71.3 million.
It’s EBITDAaL, which removes lease costs from EBITDA, increased by 73.8% in the same period to €49.9 million from €28.7 million. In 2021 EBITDAaL was €21.6 million.
DIF said the transaction could be completed by the end of 2024.
