TDF sells Finnish Digita
August 7, 2012
Australia’s Colonial First State asset management is buying Digita, the Finnish arm of French broadcasting services group TDF, for €400 million.
TDF, backed by private equity groups TPG, AXA Private Equity and Charterhouse, operates more than 11,000 radio and television transmitters across Europe, offering broadcasting services to customers such as Kabel Deutschland , BT BroadCast and T-Systems.
The decision to offload Digita is part of TDF’s strategy to focus on core markets of France and Germany and was first considered by the French company late 2011 when it was preparing the ground for a stock market listing.
Digita is Finland’s national terrestrial television network operator and provides digital television services for the likes of national public broadcaster YLE. Finnish telecom operator DNA is its smaller rival.
After the deal goes through, pending Finnish government approval, Digita will be part of Colonial First State’s European infrastructure fund.