Ielo Group, a French independent fiber-optic operator, raised funds from DIF Capital Partners, a leading global independent infrastructure fund manager, with EUR 7.6 billion of assets. The transaction will enable Ielo Group to invest EUR 160 million over the five next years in building a nationwide footprint and becoming a leading fiber optic infrastructure operator in France, while remaining a fully independent and pure infrastructure player. DIF invests in greenfield and brownfield infrastructure assets located primarily in Europe, North America, Latin America and Australia. This minority stake acquisition illustrates DIF Capital Partners’ strategy to pursue investments in the telecommunication infrastructure sector in Europe.

Born from the merger of Ielo and Liazo in 2016, Ielo Group quickly positioned itself as a key player in the telecommunications sector in France. The merger enabled the group to deploy its own fiber optic network and to increase the capillarity of its Points of Presence (“PoP”), demonstrating its know-how and potential.

The shareholders of Ielo Group were willing to welcome new financial investors to accelerate its development towards proprietary infrastructure and to assert itself as the third largest wholesale operator in fibre optic infrastructure for corporates, and as the first operator known as a wholesale only pure player in a national market led by incumbent players such as Orange, SFR, and Bouygues, and challengers including Celeste and Eurafibre.

Upon shareholder request, the Clairfield International team, led by Pierre-Alexandre Suide and Bertrand Hermez, conducted a restricted structuring and consulting assignment with several investment funds, identified for their ability to understand the complexity of telecommunication infrastructures and to support the future development of Ielo Group.

Advisors

Sellers &  Ielo Group

• Investment bank / M&A advisor : Clairfield International (Pierre-Alexandre Suide, Bertrand Hermez, Michael Sales, Romain Gerla, Amaury de Cassan)
• Legal advisors : Dentons (Olivia Guéguen, Lisa Alice Julien, Pierre-Marie Gallo, Christophe Fichet) and ASA Avocats (David Sitri)

Investors

• DIF Capital Partners (Thomas Vieillescazes, Bastien Zehntner, Mathieu Hevin)
• Investment bank / M&A advisor: Oddo BHF (Jean-François Delpech, Axel Rouvin)
• Financial due diligence : Eight Advisory (Lionnel Gerard, Sébastien Smercan)
• Strategic due diligence : EY Parthenon (Etienne Costes, Pierre Bosquet)
• Tax due diligence : Eight Advisory Avocats (Guillaume Rembry, Guillaume Exerjean)
• IP due diligence : Pavleas Avocats (Constantin Pavleas, Lola Oladunjoye)
• Legal advisor : Orrick (corporate : Patrick Tardivy, Dimitrie Ramniceanu, tax : Charles Briand, social : Emmanuel Benard)

Clairfield International acted as exclusive financial advisor to the shareholders of Ielo.