Digital Colony to Acquire Digita
April 12, 2018
Digital Colony, a global investment firm focused on enabling the next generation of mobile and Internet infrastructure, has confirmed that a Digital Colony affiliate is to acquire 100 per cent of the capital in Finnish broadcast infrastructure provider Digita from asset management business First State Investments.
Founded in 1999 as a spin-off from national broadcaster Yle, Digita is Finland’s leading TV and radio broadcasting network and the only platform with the ability to reach nearly 100 per cent of the Finnish population. The company is also Finland’s largest independent tower network owner, providing infrastructure solutions to the country’s largest mobile network operators. Digita will continue to be led by CEO Juha-Pekka Weckström and the existing management team.
“I am grateful for the support First State has provided to Digita over the years,” said Weckström. “Together with First State, we have invested more than €40 million into Digita to upgrade our network and to start new business lines including data centres and Internet of Things (IoT) services. Partnering with Digital Colony will help Digita continue to enhance its network and facilitate a first–class customer experience.”
“Digita is well-positioned to extend its business model into adjacent markets as the deployment of 5G will increase demand for new macro towers, rooftop sites, small cell deployments, and data centres,” said Ben Jenkins, Managing Partner at Digital Colony. “We look forward to partnering with Digita’s highly experienced team to ensure that the company’s processes and systems remain best in class to provide customers state-of-the-art solutions across the entire value chain.”
“We are pleased to have reached an agreement to sell Digita to Digital Colony,” said Niall Mills, Partner, Infrastructure Investments at First State. “Under our ownership, Digita has successfully refocused on its core competencies, extended all of its key broadcasting contracts, led the transition to high definition DTT and secured all six ultra-high frequency DTT Multiplex licences in 2017. This secures Digita’s role as Finland’s nationwide TV broadcast infrastructure provider over the long-term. We are confident that under Digital Colony’s ownership, Digita will continue to be well positioned to further develop as Finland’s leading tower network company.”
The transaction, which is subject to customary regulatory approvals, is expected to close in Q2 2018. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.