The telecommunication operator shall acquire an 11.1% stake in the Milan fiber optic network provider
Milan, 22 November 2011 - FASTWEB signed today an agreement to acquire an 11.1% ownership stake in Metroweb, the Milan fiber optic company. The investment shall be carried out through Swisscom Italia Srl, the parent company of FASTWEB S.p.A.
At the end of the operation, the new shareholding structure shall be as follows: FASTWEB (through Swisscom Italia, 11.1%); F2i Reti (61.4%); A2A (25.7%); Metroweb managers (1.7%).
FASTWEB's General Manager, Alberto Calcagno, said that "this operation is further strengthening a very successful commercial relationship which has been in place for over a decade. In 1999, together with AEM, FASTWEB founded Metroweb, a company which is very well known to us and which we are glad to join once more. Moreover, through our investment in Metroweb, we set the basis for our participation in the more concrete project, i.e. bring the New Generation network to Italy, with a truly open and sustainable development model".
Metroweb is the owner of the biggest fiber optic network in Milan and the Lombardy region. It is the largest fiber optic metropolitan area network in Europe, with more than 7,000 kilometers of cables. Revenues of Metroweb for FY 2010 amounted to 51 million euro and the company registered a gross operating margin of 40.6 million euro and a net profit of 12.6 million euro.
Mediobanca, as advisor, and the Legance law firm assisted Fastweb throughout the whole operation.