Private equity firm CVC Capital Partners has bought half of Japanese conglomerate Marubeni’s fibre operator Arteria Networks for around US$150m.
Arteria focuses on enterprise customers and is one of only four telcos in Japan to offer a nationwide…
Private equity firm CVC Capital Partners has bought half of Japanese conglomerate Marubeni’s fibre operator Arteria Networks for around US$150m.
Arteria focuses on enterprise customers and is one of only four telcos in Japan to offer a nationwide fibre network.
It was founded in 1997 and posts approximately US$386m in sales.
Norimitsu Niwa, CVC’s managing director in Japan, said: “We see significant growth potential in the B2B segment and Arteria is best positioned to capture this growth.”
The deal marks the PE firm’s third broadband investment in Asia, following its US$644m takeover of Hong Kong Broadband Network in 2012 and the acquisition of a 49% stake in Indonesian cableco Link Net for US$269m in 2011.
CVC also owns Swiss mobile operator Sunrise.
Hikaru Minami, managing executive officer at Marubeni, said: “There are many areas of potential synergies with CVC’s telecom assets which we would look to pursue in order to accelerate Arteria’s Asian expansion.”
As well as telecoms, Marubeni has investments in sectors including food products, materials, chemicals, energy, metals and mineral resources, and transportation machinery.
Arteria is held in its ICT division, which also includes Marubeni Wireless Communications, Marubeni IT Solutions and Marunouchi Direct Access.
CVC is buying existing shares in Arteria from Marubeni and other shareholders as well as new shares in the company. Arteria’s other shareholders include Red Anchor Investment, Kandenko Co, Forval, Mirait Holdings and Daiko Communications.
CVC was advised by Sangyo Sosei Advisory, BofA Merrill Lynch, Roland Berger, Alix Partners, Clifford Chance and PwC.
