Arjun Infrastructure Partners, the pan-European infrastructure investment manager, has today announced that it has acquired a minority stake in Altitude Infra, France’s leading fibre infrastructure operator and developer, via its Infrastructure Alliance Europe 2 fund.
Altitude Infra is an independent, open-access fibre infrastructure operator and developer with over 150,000km of fibre network with a footprint across 27 areas in France and provides a full range of services to all four national internet providers – Orange, Free, SFR and Bouygues Telecom.
Fibre already accounts for almost half of France’s broadband subscribers’ network access and, with the French government outlining a 100% target by 2025 via its “Tres Haut Debit” (very high speed) initiative, backed by consistent customer demand, Altitude Infra is confident of completing its roll-out and reaching 4.8m homes, consolidating its position as a leading independent wholesale fibre provider in France.
As well as contributing its infrastructure investment expertise, Arjun will bring the benefit of its extensive ESG experience and credentials to the business, including leading initiatives to establish a new ESG board sub-committee and ESG policy to implement a commitment aligned with Arjun’s own ESG strategy and targets.
Romain Py, a Partner at Arjun Infrastructure, said: “Fibre is the fastest, least energy-consuming, safest telecom technology from a cybersecurity standpoint and is the only technology to offer bandwidth to the new, rapidly growing technologies such as 5G and edge computing. This, coupled with France continuing to demonstrate positive macro-economic fundamentals as well as a growing and attractive telecoms market that is backed by strong government support, makes this a particularly exciting investment. Altitude Infra is at the centre of this industry and is perfectly positioned to achieve its growth ambitions and benefit from market consolidation. It is a business led by an experienced and entrepreneurial management team, coupled with the leadership of the Altitude Group, the third fiber infrastructure operator in France, and we are looking forward to working with them for the long-term.”