Asterion reaches a precept of settlement for the acquisition of Finetwork for 200 million | Companies | EUROtoday

The Finetwork telephony operator has reached a precept of settlement to promote all of its capital to the Asterion Fund, as reported by the corporate on Wednesday to its staff via an inner assertion to which this newspaper has had entry. Although the assertion is just not said within the assertion, it’s estimated that the fund, via its Olin Group-Sterion division, pays a determine of round 200 million euros, to which the debt of greater than 100 million amassed by the corporate must be added, confirmed to this newspaper Sources of the Negotiation. The settlement would additionally embrace paying the defaults maintained by the digital cell operator with Vodafone for the rental of its fiber and cell networks, and that already exceeds 70 million euros, in response to the identical sources.

“On behalf of the Council, we are glad to tell you that Finetwork has reached a principle of strategic agreement with Olin Group-Sterion, Spanish Risk Capital Fund whose investment strategy focuses on infrastructure companies. This agreement is very relevant to the restructuring plan in which we were working and to help us solve the current conflict situation that we cross with our current network service provider (Vodafone) The message to which this newspaper has had access.

Precisely those defaults to Vodafone, forced Finetwork to request the number 1 Court of Alicante at the end of May “the communication of opening of negotiations” with the creditors after recognizing their current or imminent insolvency situation. This legal process, also considered preoccancing of creditors with the old bankruptcy law, enabled the Alicante company to open a period of negotiations with Vodafone Spain and with other companies with which they maintain pending payments, in order to agree with an agreement with the victims of victims and avoid the direct judicial intervention typical of the creditors contest.

Conflict with Vodafone

The operation with Asterion is produced in the midst of this judicial conflict that polls Finetwork to an express negotiation since if at the end of November its debt with Vodafone does not leave, the latter could redeem the debt for capital of the company and keep the control of Finetwork. This is contemplated by the new bankruptcy law, which was already applied in 2023 when the Court granted the reason to the creditors of the Catalan steel Cessa that requested the exchange of part of the debt for the capital of the company, whose control snatched the Rubiralta Catalan family, historical owners of the firm.

As stated in article 585 of the new bankruptcy regulations, Wewi Mobile, a company that owns Finetwork, has a period of three months to negotiate the amount of debts, with the possibility of extending it to another three months in the event that an agreement is not reached and an extension is agreed. That is, Finetwork has until the end of November to reach an agreement with Vodafone. Asterion is aware of this operator capital urgency, hence the low assessment of the operator of only 200 million euros, he reported The economist that has advanced the negotiations.

The main shareholders of Finetwork are the entrepreneur and founder Pascual Pérez, with about 50%, and the Kai Capital fund, which entered the shareholders in September 2024, with an initial investment and an convertible loan for 20 million euros.

Finetwork is what is known as a virtual mobile operator (OMV) in the sector jargon, that is, it does not have its own network and should use the infrastructure of other companies to offer service to its customers. In the case of the Alicante company, it uses the Vodafone fiber and mobile network from the beginning of its operations. At the end of May 2024, and after tense negotiations, he renewed the wholesale rental agreement that he maintained with Vodafone for a period of ten years, reaching a remove of 40 million euros, but the defaults continued to be produced. And although Finetwork continues to use the Vodafone network, he took care of all the management of his more than one million lines, with its own SIM cards and Sim cards, which Vodafone also managed. It has 1.3 million fiber and mobile lines.

Finetwork is going through a difficult management and financial situation. The operator fully ceased his CEO, Óscar Vilda, the last day of 2024 and, since then, the position is vacant and the management is in charge of a “transition committee” headed by Pascual Pérez, who wants to impose a strategic turn. The origin of the problem is that the company experienced rapid growth at the expense of borrowing with the views of getting an buyer or an investor to get rapid capital gains. That investor never arrived and the company had to resort to bank loans, whose cost is weighing in its balance.

As for the funds, Finetwork returned to advantages in 2023 regardless of being in full part of growth, with a powerful promotional expense and enormous sponsors 8.45%, as much as 127.1 million euros that, along with different exploitation revenues, present a complete income variety of 158.9 million, 27.76% greater than in 2022. In addition, Finetwork anticipated that in 2024 registered revenues of 157 million euros, 24% greater than in 2023, and with a advantage of 6 million euros, though official accounts haven’t but made public.