Telia Company and CapMan Infra to jointly increase fiber penetration in Finland

Thu, Oct 31, 2019 - Telia Company will accelerate the roll-out of open fiber in Finland. The continued effort to create best network experience across platforms will be performed in co-operation with Capman Infra, the infrastructure investments arm of Nordic private asset management firm CapMan.

The fiber roll-out targets households (single dwelling units, SDUs) across Finland. According to the agreement with CapMan Infra, Telia Company will hold a 40 percent stake in a new company which will take over Telia Finland’s existing SDU fiber roll-out business ‘Avoin Kuitu’, which currently has roughly 20,000 homes passed. Telia Company will together with CapMan Infra accelerate the pace of investments in passive fiber across Finland. Telia Company will provide the fiber access network with communications operator services.

“I’m really happy that we have come to this agreement with CapMan Infra which fits very well with Telia Company’s strategy of having superior network connectivity while adding to our commercial success through convergence and great customer experience. The network roll-out will play an important role for Finland to maintain its position at the very forefront of digitalization. This new type of structure with a partnership ties well with our ambition of disciplined allocation where we, case by case and market by market, seek a good balance between the risk and reward and potential future technology shifts as well as short versus long-term thinking,” says Stein-Erik Vellan, Senior Vice President, Head of Telia Finland.

The transaction is subject to approval from relevant authorities and is expected to be completed during the first quarter of 2020.