Technology, Media & Telecoms
€3.6bn
France FR

Scope of intervention

Sycomore Corporate Finance acted as exclusive financial adviser to TDF and its management

Date of closing

March 2015
TDF and its management have agreed to sell French Group activities to a consortium of investors composed of APG Asset Management, Arcus Infrastructure Services, Brookfield Infrastructure Group and Public Sector Pension Investment Board.

Arcus first identified and evaluated this opportunity in H1 2013. Arcus led the formation of a consortium which was ultimately granted exclusivity in a bilateral deal in August 2014. As part of the transaction, TDF’s non-French operations (mostly Germany) were carved out prior to closing in order to create a pure-play, French broadcasting and towers company. The transaction was further complicated by the significant amount of debt supporting the broader TDF group. Arcus led the arrangement of a very attractive bank financing package, which the consortium intends to refinance in the international bond markets.

Leveraging its long-standing deep sector knowledge in the telecom infrastructure space, Arcus will be managing its own investment as well as APG’s and PSP Investments’ in TDF, which in aggregate represents a 50% shareholding in TDF. The remaining 50% is owned by Brookfield.

The acquisition is in line with Brookfield’s strategy to expand its footprints in the European communication infrastructure industry.

The consortium is considering selling down a minority stake of up to 10% to a French reference investor.

Rationale

  • Benefit from Brookfield’s experience in the infrastructure sector to capture follow on growth opportunities, both organically and through acquisitions
  • Strengthen and expand TDF’s market position through the increasing tower deployment by mobile network operators as a result of rising mobile data consumption needs

TDF at a glance

Founded in 1975 and headquartered in Montrouge (France), TDF provides services and infrastructure to the media, broadcasting and telecommunications sectors in France. The company owns and operates a high quality, national network of infrastructure with more than 6,690 multi-purpose towers and active rooftop sites, as well as 5,000 km of fibre backbone. These essential services drive almost 90% of the current revenues of the business and are supported by long-term contracts and inflation-linked cash flows. The portfolio’s growth will be driven by increasing tower deployment by mobile network operators as a result of rising mobile data consumption needs. During its fiscal year ending on 31 March 2014, the Company generated c.€740m of revenues and c.€370m of EBITDA.