Rubicon closes second Irish infrastructure M&A deal within a month – advised InfraVia on its acquisition of Coillte’s telecoms business

Rubicon Infrastructure Advisors (“Rubicon”) advised InfraVia Capital Partners (“InfraVia”) on their acquisition of Coillte’s telecoms infrastructure business. With the Convention Centre Dublin reaching its successful conclusion in July, this represents the second large Irish infrastructure M&A process that Rubicon has closed over the summer.

Rubicon also represented an industrial sponsor in the sale of a portfolio of four Spanish essential infrastructure assets earlier this year and the cumulative enterprise value across these six assets exceeds €2.5 billion. Rubicon has ongoing sale mandates for a further six European infrastructure assets with enterprise value exceeding €3.0 billion, which solidifies its position as one of Europe’s leading infrastructure M&A practices.

Commenting on today’s transaction Aeneas Griffin, Managing Director of Rubicon, said:

“As an independent advisory firm, Rubicon is focused on providing our clients with customised advice and unwavering commitment.  We are pleased to have assisted InfraVia in the acquisition of this attractive business platform and believe it demonstrates the creativity, innovation and premium level of service Rubicon brings to each assignment”.

The official media press release is included below.

Coillte agrees to sell its telecoms infrastructure business to InfraVia

August 27, 2015: Coillte announced today that InfraVia Capital Partners (“InfraVia”), a French investment fund, has agreed to purchase its portfolio of telecommunications assets for an undisclosed sum.

The portfolio consists of approximately 300 telecommunications masts and equipment locations across Coillte’s estate. A number of the masts were built by Coillte in recent years and certain locations include optical fibre connectivity. Ireland’s leading mobile network operators are the primary customers of the portfolio.

A new Irish based company which shall trade as “Cignal” has been formed to own and manage the business. Cignal will be chaired by Donal O’Shaughnessy who has extensive experience in the telecoms infrastructure sector.

Commenting on the transaction Fergal Leamy, Chief Executive of Coillte, said:

“Coillte’s core business is forestry and it is our ambition to maximise the economic and social value of each hectare we manage. The transaction we are announcing today is an outstanding example of the value we can create from an innovative and strategic approach to managing our estate. From a few hundred remote hilltops we have created a business with real value. I want to give credit to the team for the fantastic job they have done in firstly building a great business and secondly helping realise this value now so we can continue to invest and grow our core business. This transaction will strengthen our balance sheet and support our plans to invest €59m in our SmartPly facility in Waterford Port and further investment in our windfarm portfolio in the coming years.”

Vincent Levita, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of InfraVia said:

“Our acquisition of the Coillte telecoms portfolio is highly consistent with our strategy of investing in midcap high-quality infrastructure assets. We are delighted to enter the Irish infrastructure market with an investment offering interesting growth prospects considering the ongoing 4G roll-out, the National Broadband Plan as well as the current requirement of additional coverage from mobile operators. We look forward to working with Coillte as a long-term partner, to developing with the management team these growth opportunities and establishing Cignal as a leading player in the Irish telecoms market”.

While sites at 298 locations are included in the sale the total area of land associated with these sites is less than 15 hectares and Coillte has assured the public that access to its forests for recreation use will be unaffected by the sale of this telecoms portfolio.

Coillte was advised by Goodbody (corporate finance), Arthur Cox (legal) and PWC (accounting and tax). Rubicon Infrastructure Advisors (financial), A&L Goodbody (legal) and BDO (tax) advised InfraVia on the transaction.

About Coillte’s telecoms business:

• Coillte Telecoms has been providing solutions to the telecoms industry since 1964 and has evolved from a pure site leasing business to a telecoms infrastructure solutions provider to the Irish telecoms and broadcast industries.
• Between 2009 and 2010, Coillte Telecoms designed and constructed 104 towers on Coillte property to support the National Broadband Scheme.
• The portfolio of towers is spread across 298 locations nationwide. This sale represents approximately 16% of the towers actively supporting commercial communications in the Irish market.

About Coillte:

Coillte is a commercial company operating in forestry, land based businesses, renewable energy and panel products.
The company employs approx 1,000 people and was established in 1988. It owns over 445,000 hectares of land, about 7% of the land cover of Ireland.
Coillte manages its forests to deliver social, economic and environmental benefits.

About InfraVia Capital Partners:

InfraVia Capital Partners is an investment manager dedicated to the infrastructure sector. InfraVia Capital Partners manages two infrastructure funds, which are both positioned as long term investors across the infrastructure and energy sectors in Europe. InfraVia Capital Partners is affiliated with OFI Asset Management.

Backed by two major French mutual insurance companies, Macif and Matmut, OFI Asset Management puts its asset management skills at the service of third-party investors. With €66 billion of assets under management as at March 31 2015, OFI Asset Management aims to offer a complete range of products and services to European institutional investors.

Further information:
Coillte Nuala Buttner, Q4 Public Relations 085 1744275
Infravia Vincent Levita, +33 (0)1 40 68 17 38, vlevita@infraviacapital.com