LONDON: Oakley Capital Investments Limited (OCI) announced that Oakley Capital Origin II2 (Origin II) has agreed to acquire vitroconnect, a leading broadband open access platform business in Germany. This will be the first platform investment made by Origin II.

OCI’s indirect contribution to Origin II is anticipated to be up to £19 million, which relates to OCI’s share of Oakley’s investment in vitroconnect.

Oakley Capital, the leading pan-European, mid-market private equity investor, is pleased to announce that Oakley Capital Origin II has agreed its first investment, acquiring a majority stake in vitroconnect, one of the leading broadband open access platforms in Germany.

Oakley is investing alongside founder and CEO Dirk Pasternack and his management team who will continue to run the business. The transaction is subject to regulatory approval and is expected to complete around the end of H1 2024.

Based in Gütersloh, Germany, vitroconnect connects broadband providers with resellers through a proprietary, single interface software platform. The company works with most of Germany’s leading telco players, offering process automation, network operations, brokerage and white-label services through its Carrier Aggregation Platform (‘CAP’).

vitroconnect’s CAP-enabled intermediation services help customers utilise broadband networks more efficiently and reduce transaction costs significantly for all parties involved. This unique offering has allowed the company to steadily expand its customer base of network operators and resellers, with minimal customer churn, strong net retention and a high share of recurring revenues contributing to consistent and profitable double-digit growth over the last three years.

As a key enabler of wholesale activities in the highly fragmented and technologically heterogeneous German broadband marketplace, vitroconnect is poised to benefit from the significant proliferation of fibre to the home (‘FTTH’) technology as Germany catches up with European peers.

Germany currently has one of the lowest rates of homes connected to fibre broadband. This is attracting significant investment in fibre technology which will underpin future market growth with the number of connected homes expected to grow from three million today to 29 million by 2029 and 39 million by 2035.

Oakley’s investment in vitroconnect further adds to a long track record of partnering with high growth and profitable founder-led businesses. Relevant Oakley deals in adjacent sectors span across software businesses including WebPros, Horizons Optical and Alerce.

Oakley Capital co-founder and Managing Partner Peter Dubens said: “vitroconnect is set to benefit from the transformational change underway in Germany’s broadband market as the country pivots to fibre technology. The company has established a market leading position thanks to its customer focus, strong technical capabilities and excellent management. Oakley looks forward to working with Dirk and his team, combining vitroconnect’s core strengths with our own sector capabilities to help further accelerate its growth.”

vitroconnect founder and CEO Dirk Pasternack said: “We were attracted to Oakley’s strong track record in the software and telco space, in particular its proven ability to guide companies through inflection points. We look forward to partnering with Oakley as we embark on the next stage of vitroconnect’s growth plan.”

www.oakleycapitalinvestments.com

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