ETC Group to Acquire TIBA

• Acquisition to continue driving ETC Group’s (ETC”) international expansion·        Builds ETC’s footprint in DACH region and Eastern Europe, following recent acquisition of Klonex-VCS in Poland and expansion in Germany
• Adds to ETC’s product base, telecom and technology infrastructure expertise, and customer relationships, as well as providing access to the attractive Austrian telecoms market

28 September 2022, Raasdorf, Austria, & 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 TIBA Produktions und Vertriebs GmbH (TIBA”), an Austrian value-added distributor of passive equipment 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 data center technologies with over 30 years of extensive industry expertise. ETC Group has over 1,200 employees across more than 40 locations that span 13 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 Raasdorf, Austria, TIBA specializes in the distribution of tailor-made and innovative solutions for telecoms networks across optical, HFC, mobile, and datacenters. Founded in 1977 by Franz Iglauer, it is the official distributor of CommScope in Austria. The acquisition expands ETC’s presence in the DACH region, where it already serves major operators in Germany, and follows ETC’s recent acquisition of Klonex-VCS in Poland.

The acquisition enables ETC to further broaden its customer base across the DACH region and provides entrance to the attractive and rapidly growing Austrian telecoms market, which is primed for significant growth due to its low FTTH penetration with significant network deployments expected over the coming years. ETC will leverage TIBA’s strong relationships across the Austrian telecoms landscape and bring the benefits of ETC’s global scale, purchasing power, and one-stop shop model to TIBA’s existing business, with the potential for significant synergies. Ambitious targets and the complexity of fiber network deployments are increasingly making ETC’s value-added offerings critical to operators who seek to maximize operational efficiencies and lower their deployment costs.

Cédric Varasteh, Founder and Co-Chairman of ETC Group, said: This acquisition offers ETC an expanded presence across the DACH region, broadening our exposure in Eastern Europe following the recent acquisition of Klonex-VCS in Poland and our expansion in Germany. We see a range of opportunities in the Austrian telecoms market, in which the enlarged Group is uniquely positioned to serve, and we’re also set to benefit from the product portfolio, new capabilities, and set of long-term customer relationships with key partners that TIBA adds to our business. Leveraging their strong position in Austria and our one-stop shop value-added services and comprehensive range of network products will enable us to further support customers in accelerating their network upgrades and deployments by providing new product ranges, technologies and services. We look forward to working with Andreas, Franz, Patrick and the entire team to build a leader in the DACH region, which is a priority for our Group.”

Andreas Fleck, Managing Director of TIBA, said: We are delighted to join ETC Group and believe our business will continue to thrive by combining our expertise, product offerings, and customer relationships. The opportunity to support customers throughout Austria and the DACH region with network upgrades and deployments is significant, and we believe as part of ETC Group, the business is ideally positioned to deliver growth over the long term with a full one-stop shop offering and augmented sourcing capabilities.”

Cyril Bourdarot, Managing Director on the Carlyle Europe Technology Partners (CETP”) advisory team, said: We are pleased to announce this acquisition – the sixth for ETC in two years – further building on the company’s extensive track record of growth and international expansion. We have built ETC as a category leader and natural consolidator in the highly fragmented telecoms infrastructure and technology market. ETC is now present in 14 countries with a strong market position and we believe the business has the potential to create a global, industry-leading multi-billion dollar value-added distributor in the telecom sector, as demonstrated by CETP’s recently announced reinvestment in ETC.”

The transaction is subject to customary regulatory approvals and is expected to close later this year.

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 CETP reinvesting for a significant minority stake. The latter transaction is expected to close later this year.