Today, Cordiant Digital Infrastructure Limited (“Cordiant Digital”) announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary has signed a binding agreement to acquire Emitel S.A. (“Emitel” or the “Company”) from its shareholder – Alinda Capital Partners (“Alinda”). Completion of the acquisition is subject to regulatory and governmental approvals and financing confirmations at the Emitel level.
Admitted to the Specialist Fund Segment of the London Stock Exchange under the ticker CORD, Cordiant Digital is a specialist investment company focused on investing in digital infrastructure assets in Europe and North America. As a permanent capital investment company it can, unlike a traditional private equity fund, adopt an extremely long-term investment horizon, enabling portfolio companies to execute on long-term investment plans with confidence. The firm is a “buy, build and grow” investor leveraging a large team of senior telecommunications industry executives and private equity professionals with deep digital experience. Cordiant Digital’s manager is Cordiant Capital Inc. (“Cordiant“), an institutional asset manager with committed capital of ca. US$ 3 billion.
The Chairman of Cordiant’s Infrastructure team is Steven Marshall, who was formerly President of American Tower (listed under AMT on the New York Stock Exchange), Chairman of the Wireless Infrastructure Association and CEO of National Grid Wireless of the U.K. He has had past experience in the Polish digital infrastructure market. He remarked:
“Emitel is a national champion in a country with strong public finances. Emitel enjoys attractive growth prospects in areas such as mobile towers, edge data and ‘smart cities’. We also applaud what managerment and employees of the firm have built to date (including a strong focus on sustainability), and look forward to investing further capital in support of Emitel’s growth.”
Emitel’s CEO Andrzej J. Kozlowski thanked Alinda for their consistent support as an investor and further commented: “In Cordiant Digital we have an investor bringing both a long investment horizon and significant industry expertise; as such it can deploy capital, insight and patience to support us in our medium- and long-term growth plans in broadcasting and become an even more significant provider of outsourced digital infrastructure. We look forward to working with the Cordiant Digital team.”
Alinda Capital Partners’ Jim Metcalfe, Chairman of Emitel Supervisory Board said : “Emitel’s managment team and employees have positioned the company to continue to deliver best in class broadcast service across Poland and to grow as the leading independent provider of build to suit telecom towers. Emitel has consistently delivered on its ESG initiatives and was recently recognised for its outperformance. Alinda is committed to working with the management team and Cordiant Digital to obtain Polish regulatory approvals and successfully transfer the company to its long term investor.”
Cordiant will seek to support Emitel through its industry knowledge and contacts, and to build on strong existing relationships with the relevant stakeholders and regulatory authorities.
