EQT to acquire IP-Only for SEK 680m

EQT will acquire 91% of IP-Only from the company's three largest shareholders at a price of 1.25 per share, totalling around SEK 680m. EQT didn't leverage its investment.

The transaction is subject to customary regulatory approvals and is expected to close during Q2 2013.

IP-Only had been in contact with EQT for a long period of time prior to the buyout. Negotiations started at the beginning of April and closed 1.5 months later.

This is EQT's first acquisition within the Swedish fibre network market. EQT aims to create organic growth through further investments in the IP-Only network and via selective add-on acquisitions.

Company
Founded in 1999 and based in Uppsala, IP-Only is a Swedish internet and telecom operator that provides high-capacity fibre-based data communication and data centre services.

IP-Only owns its own Nordic fibre infrastructure, Metro Area Networks data centres and infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) platform. Customers include communications-intensive companies, financial institutions and media companies.

The business is also a provider to the public sector with clients such as the government offices of Sweden, the Swedish social insurance agency and the Swedish pensions agency.

IP-Only's network links Stockholm, Oslo, Copenhagen and Helsinki, as well as Gothenburg and Malmö. In 2002, the company acquired Scandinavian fibre network KPNQwest. In total, approximately SEK 3bn has been invested in IP-Only's network infrastructure.

People
Gunnar Asp is an industrial adviser at EQT and IP-Only's proposed chairman of the board of directors. Kruse Petersen is a partner at EQT. Mikael Philipsson is the CEO of IP-Only

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