Investment group EQT Infrastructure has unveiled plans to merge the Swedish fibre network operator IP-Only and GlobalConnect, a firm which has fibre and data centre operations in Norway, Denmark and Germany. According to a release from EQT: ‘The combined entity will be better positioned to serve the growing demands of national and international customers, and the scale of the combined organisation will allow strengthened innovation and investment to bring new technologies and solutions faster to the market.’ IP-Only controls around 16,000km of fibre network across Sweden and serves 200,000 homes and 3,000 businesses, while GlobalConnect operates a 42,000km fibre system in three countries, connecting 24,000 businesses and 83,000 private customers.
Daniel Perez, Partner at EQT Partners and Investment Advisor to EQT Infrastructure, commented: ‘We … consider a merger between GlobalConnect and IP-Only to be a natural next step in our strategy to build the leading Northern European provider of integrated digital infrastructure.’