The company said that the combined entity will be better positioned to serve the growing demand for national and international customers due to its scale.
In 2018 the two companies had combined revenues of approximately €520m and employ more than 1,500 people across the Nordics and Northern Germany.
IP-Only owns and operates approximately 16,000 km fiber-based network infrastructure that, together with leased lines, covers 230 out of 290 Swedish municipalities, and the company connects over 200,000 homes and serves over 3,000 business customers.
GlobalConnect is an alternative fiber-based data communication and data centre services provider in Norway, Denmark and Northern Germany that owns and operates 42,000 km of fiber-based network and 18,000 sqm of data centre space.
“The vision of merging IP-Only and GlobalConnect is to create a leading provider of digital infrastructure for businesses, public institutions and fiber networks to consumers in the Nordics and Northern Germany, and we will have both the scale and competencies to deliver on that vision,” said Martin Lippert (pictured), CEO of GlobalConnect.
“Together, we can rapidly and more vigorously expand our infrastructure and offer the newest products and services to our customers.”
It has been predicted that the intended merger between IP-Only and GlobalConnect will accelerate the two companies’ growth agendas.
“We are deeply impressed with the development of GlobalConnect since the creation of the Danish-Norwegian group in 2018 and consider a merger between GlobalConnect and IP-Only to be a natural next step in our strategy to build the leading Northern European provider of integrated digital infrastructure,” said Daniel Perez, Partner at EQT Partners and Investment Advisor to EQT Infrastructure.
The merger is expected to be implemented with a new organisational structure designed in the coming months.
The two companies will continue to operate as separate entities with separate names and brands until further notice.
Masoud Homayoun, Partner at EQT Partners and Investment Advisor to EQT Infrastructure, concludes: “Based on similar strategic development trajectories and ambitions, we believe that a merger between IP-Only and GlobalConnect will create a combined organisation and fiber networks with a compelling position in the region, and EQT will continue to support proactive investments to the benefit of customers and partners.”
