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20 July 2022, Opole, Poland, & Eaubonne, France – ETC Group (ETC”), a leading a one-stop shop” value-added distributor for the telecom network and technology infrastructure industry, announced today the acquisition of Klonex-VCS (Klonex”), an independent Polish value-added reseller and professional services provider for telecom networks. The financial terms of the transaction are not disclosed.
Founded in 1993 by Cédric Varasteh, ETC Group is a one-stop shop value-added distributor of passive and active telecommunications equipment and tooling with best-in-class technical and logistics solutions for network deployment, upgrades, and maintenance, supporting FTTH, FTTx, HFC, Wi-Fi, 5G/mobile, and datacentre technologies with over 30 years of extensive industry expertise. ETC Group has over 1,200 employees across 40 locations that span 12 countries including the United States, France, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Portugal, and supports 14,000+ customers worldwide including major American and European operators and telecommunications service providers. The Group’s comprehensive portfolio of 55,000+ products from close to 1,000 industry-leading suppliers, along with their value-added supply chain solutions, support carriers’ seamless delivery of high-speed Internet, Video, Data, and Voice services to residential, business, and mobile users.
Headquartered in Opole, Poland, Klonex is a leading technology integrator, service provider and distributor of telecoms equipment to key multiple-system operators in Poland. The business was founded in 1989 by Mirosław Łyśniewski and Witold Woźniak, both of whom remain as managers. Its product offering includes data transmission, DOCSIS and customer-premises equipment, access components such as hybrid fibre-coaxial infrastructure, and value-added maintenance services. It is a long-term partner to key leading telecom OEMs.
The transaction enables ETC to broaden its geographic footprint and customer base by providing an entry point into the attractive Polish market, a geography which has a number of significant telecom network deployments – including in wireline (HFC and FTTH) and wireless networks – expected over the next decade, supporting the increasing demand for high-speed connectivity. ETC will leverage Klonex’s strong relationships across the Polish telecoms landscape and bring the benefits of ETC’s global scale and one-stop shop model to Klonex’s existing business, with the potential for significant synergies. Additionally, the acquisition will provide ETC with further technological, product, and capability diversification from Klonex, including its expertise in the active equipment and related professional services businesses, which ETC will be able to leverage across its entire international footprint. The transaction is still subject to antitrust approvals.
Cédric Varasteh, Founder and Co-Chairman of ETC Group, said: This acquisition is another step in ETC’s growth, broadening our geographic footprint into the attractive and growing Polish telecoms market while also providing technological diversification, new capabilities, and a strong set of long-term customer relationships with key partners. We look forward to working with Mirosław, Witold and the entire team as we continue building ETC’s position as a category leader and natural consolidator in the highly fragmented telecoms infrastructure and technology market.”
Mirosław Łyśniewski, Co-Founder and CEO of Klonex, said: Over the past few months we have forged a strong relationship with Cédric, Cyril and the ETC team, culminating in our conviction that ETC is the best partner to support the business. Witold and I, as well as the entire Klonex team, are delighted to join ETC Group and we are excited by the prospect of combining our offerings, leveraging the strong position of Klonex in HFC/DOCSIS/CoreIP technologies and ETC's outstanding position in FTTH/5G/DataCentre. Together we will be able to further support our customers in accelerating their network upgrades and deployments by providing new product ranges, technologies and services. The acceleration of network upgrades and fibre roll-out in Poland will create a range of business opportunities for which the enlarged group is uniquely positioned.”
Cyril Bourdarot, Managing Director on the Carlyle Europe Technology Partners (CETP”) advisory team, said: We are delighted to announce this fifth acquisition for ETC in two years, which builds on the company’s extensive track record of growth and international expansion. Together with Cédric, we have positioned ETC as the leading consolidation platform in the sector – now present in 13 countries with this expansion in Poland. As illustrated by CETP’s recently announced reinvestment in ETC, we believe the group has significant further growth potential to create a global, industry-leading multi-billion dollar value-added distributor in the telecom sector. The acquisition of Klonex furthers this goal by expanding ETC’s business in Europe, building on its strong trajectory to date.”
In June 2022, ETC Group announced that Cinven, the international private equity firm, entered into exclusive negotiations to acquire a majority stake in ETC Group from Carlyle, with Carlyle CETP reinvesting for a significant minority stake. The latter transaction is expected to close later this year.
