Linklaters advises Canada Pension Plan Investment Board on their €2 billion investment into NetCo

Linklaters has advised Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments) on their acquisition of a 17.5% interest in NetCo, the most extensive telecoms network in Italy, for up to €2 billion as part of a transaction which values the business at an enterprise value of approximately €18.8 billion.

CPP Investments have entered into an agreement to join the Optics BidCo investor group, which is acquiring NetCo. The investor group, led by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. L.P. (KKR), includes a wholly owned subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), the Italian infrastructure fund F2i and the Ministry of Economy and Finance of the Italian Government.

The investor group at NetCo will support the completion of an extensive upgrade to the existing network to deliver high quality and high capacity fiber-based services in urban and rural areas, decommissioning of legacy copper technologies, making improvements to IT functionality, and driving efficiencies in the business.

The cross-practice and cross-jurisdictional Linklaters team advising CPP Investments was led by corporate partner Michael Honan and corporate managing associates Alistair Fraser and Henrietta White alongside corporate partner Pietro Belloni, TMT partners Julian Cunningham-Day and Rich Jones, TMT counsel So Yeon Um and corporate associates Pietro Pozzati and Jane Jin.

Closing of the transaction is expected in the summer of 2024 subject to customary conditions.