Latham & Watkins LLP advised Allianz Capital Partners, one of the asset managers for the Allianz Group, on the creation of a joint venture with Telefónica Deutschland and Telefónica Infra, S.L.U (Telefónica Group) to deploy Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) in Germany. Following closing, Allianz Group and Telefónica Group will each hold 50% in the joint venture company under a co-control governance model. 

The joint venture is set to deploy local fibre optic networks in underserved rural and semi-rural areas across Germany and to offer FTTH wholesale access to all telecommunications service providers so they can in turn offer these services to their end customers. The company intends to invest up to EUR 5 billion in the expansion of the fibre optic network over the next 6 years. The transaction is subject to the approval of the competent merger control authorities and closing is expected to occur in the first half of 2021.

The transaction represents the latest high profile infrastructure deal on which the firm has advised in Europe, following Latham’s role advising EQT Infrastructure and OMERS on the acquisition of Deutsche Glasfaser earlier this year.

Latham represented ACP in the transaction with a cross-practice team led by Munich partners Burc Hesse and Sebastian Pauls, Düsseldorf partners Tobias Larisch and Michael Esser, and London partner Conrad Andersen, with associates Thomas Diekmann, Andreas Holzgreve, Chris Freitag, Katharina Intfeld, Jörg Ruff, Fabian Klumpen, Fabienne Rotering, and Judith Jacop. Advice on tax matters was provided by Munich partner Stefan Süß and associate Felicitas Mayer-Theobald.

Allianz Capital Partners in house team was led by Dr. Stefan Wirsch, Head of Legal – Direct Investments and Georg Piroth, Legal Counsel Direct – Investments.