RWE lights the way with vitronet investment

Livingstone’s Industrial team has advised the shareholders of vitronet Holding on the sale of a significant minority stake to RWE Deutschland AG.

vitronet, based in Essen, Germany, is a provider of turnkey optical fiber infrastructure solutions, specialising in the expansion of broadband networks, and offers a full range of services from project management consultancy to maintenance and servicing. The company maintains and services over 10,000 km of optical fiber cables, including for companies in the RWE Deutschland Group. Clients include telecoms providers, cable network operators, energy suppliers and municipal utilities companies. vitronet combines its own optical fiber network sections with third party sections and closes any supply gaps by laying broadband cables.

“Modern IT and communication technologies are unthinkable without optical fiber. With RWE, we now have the right partner to rapidly expand our business,” said Harald Ross, Managing Director of vitronet Group.

“Optical fiber lies at the heart of the information society. With its technology, vitronet is on the best path to becoming one of the major players in the development and expansion of optical fiber infrastructure in Germany. RWE’s investment highlights the success vitronet has had up to now and opens new strategic opportunities,” added Willi Mannheims, member of the vitronet management board and partner of Ventizz Capital Partners Advisory AG. Ventizz Capital Fund IV L.P. invested in vitronet early in 2010, and their investment has enabled vitronet to expand in the intervening period.

This is the fourth transaction that Livingstone has advised vitronet Group on within the past two years having advised on the initial Ventizz investment and the acquisitions of Siemens’ data cable networks division and GILD.e mbH.