CAPZA Acquires Wifirst

Paris – Paul Hastings is advising the sellers and the reinvestors Bpifrance, Amundi Private Equity Funds and Socadif on the sale of Wifirst, a European leader in managed WiFi for professionals, to CAPZA.

Founded in 2002, Wifirst is a B2B telecom operator specialising in providing WiFi managed services for professionals. The Group expanded its international network by opening offices in the UK and Spain in 2016, and plans to expand into new countries this year, including Germany and Italy. Wifirst’s offering is particularly deployed in the following markets: Hospitality, Retail, Corporate, Healthcare, Senior Living, Defence and Student Accommodation. The Group is one of the pioneers of the “as a Service” connectivity model. It provides its customers a complete and tailor-made service including audit, design, deployment of high-quality WiFi networks (with full site coverage), connection of sites to the core network, supervision by AI, site maintenance and upgrades.

Completion of the transaction remains subject to the approval of the competition authorities, which is currently under review.

Paul Hastings' team on this transaction is led by Sébastien Crépy (Partner) with Moussa Mbodji (Associate) on the corporate and contractual aspects, Thomas Pulcini (Counsel) and Alban Castarède (Associate) on the tax aspects, as well as Camille Paulhac (Partner) and Juliette Hua (Associate) on the competition aspects.

The managers of Wifirst were advised by Scotto Partners.

Ayache advised CAPZA.

 

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