Ufinet, which operates 70,000km of fibre-optic infrastructure across 17 Latin American countries, has made a non-binding offer for Oi’s fibre business unit, two sources familiar with the matter have informed Reuters. As part of its restructuring plan to exit bankruptcy protection, the Brazilian telecoms company aims to sell up to 51% of its fibre infrastructure unit InfraCo to fund its expansion. Wholesale operator Ufinet, which provides dark fibre access, as well as capacity, co-location and cloud services, is owned by Cinven and Enel. A banker close to the deal told the news agency: ‘The deal makes sense for Enel since it has grid assets in Brazil and can leverage the fibre-optic network.’ Enel is one of the major private players of South America’s energy sector with a consolidated presence in the generation, distribution and transmission sectors through Enel Americas.
TeleGeography notes that Ufinet is co-owned by international private equity fund Cinven (79%) and Italian utility giant Enel (21%). In July 2018 Enel X International finalised the EUR150 million (USD176 million) acquisition of 21% of the share capital of a NewCo that holds Ufinet International. Enel X International has the right to exercise a call option to acquire the Cinven’s stake in Ufinet between 31 December 2020 and 31 December 2021 for an additional consideration of between EUR1.32 billion and EUR2.10 billion, dependent upon various KPIs.