Munich – The Telefónica Group has entered into a joint venture with companies belonging to the Allianz Group to expand fibre optic coverage in Germany. The aim of the joint venture is to provide underserved rural areas with fast fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) connections. The joint venture will make FTTH wholesale products available to telecommunications service providers, who will then market these broadband services to their end customers. Telefónica Infra and Telefónica Deutschland will jointly hold 50% of the shares in the joint venture and will invest up to EUR 500 million over a six-year period. The joint venture will have up to EUR 1.5 billion of equity available in total. Telefónica Deutschland is also the first major customer to enter into a comprehensive partnership with the joint venture. This covers both distribution of FTTH products by Telefónica Deutschland as a wholesale customer of the joint venture and the provision of data transport services. The transaction is currently awaiting approval from the competition authorities.
A CMS team headed by lead partners Dr Martin Kuhn and Dr Oliver Thurn advised Telefónica Deutschland on all legal aspects of establishing the joint venture. Telefónica Deutschland is a longstanding CMS client and regularly relies on the Munich-based team’s expertise. A recent example is the sale of the company’s entire passive infrastructure, comprising around 10,000 rooftop sites and up to 80 tower sites, to Telxius Telecom S.A.
CMS Germany
Dr Martin Kuhn, Partner
Dr Oliver Thurn, Partner, both Lead Partners
Anna-Lena Lill, Counsel
Karen Eldred, Senior Associate
Lukas Stegemann, Associate, all Corporate/M&A
Dr Björn Herbers, Partner, Competition & EU
Dr Tilman Niedermaier, Partner, Dispute Resolution
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