The infrastructure arm of the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System and the EQT Infrastructure IV fund are jointly purchasing German fibre technology company Deutsche Glasfaser Holding.
Deutsche Glasfaser provides fibre infrastructure to underserved rural and suburban German communities. The company intends to ramp up its offerings to deploy large scale fibre-to-the-home internet access in rural German regions.
As part of the deal, Deutsche Glasfaser is combining with another fibre tech company, Inexio, which is in EQT Infrastructure IV’s portfolio. To help meet rising demand for fibre-to-the-home internet access, the OMERS and EQT intend to invest €7 billion in the coming years to accelerate the rollout of new fibre infrastructure.
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“We are pleased to announce our partnership with EQT to accelerate the fibre rollout in Germany’s rural communities,” said Marco Pugliese, managing director at OMERS Infrastructure, in a press release. “OMERS is eager to support Deutsche Glasfaser’s and Inexio’s ambitious growth plans. This investment follows OMERS’ recent investment to deploy FTTH to more than eight million homes in France and meets OMERS Infrastructure’s strong desire to seek exposure to essential digital infrastructure in high quality jurisdictions.”
In other investment news, the Public Sector Pension Investment Board participated, alongside the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and existing investors, in a $340-million round of financing for Netskope, a security cloud company, led by Sequoia Capital Global Equities.
The company provides real-time data and threat protection platforms for using the cloud or websites from any internet-connected device.
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As well, the PSP is remaining a shareholder in Ceva Santé Animalem, a French multinational veterinary pharmaceutical company, after the company renewed its shareholding structure.
The pension fund is now part of a special group of core, long-term investors, coined Ceva friends, which also includes Téthys Invest of France, Mitsui & Co. of Japan and Klocke Gruppe of Germany.