News

Mexican private equity firm Nexxus Iberia has made an investment in Fuertes Gimeno Comunicaciones S.L., a Spanish engineering company. No financial terms were disclosed. EY and Garrigues were adviser on the deal.

PRESS RELEASE

Nexxus Iberia announces that Nexxus Iberia Private Equity Fund I, FCR (the “Fund”), completed its first investment on June 27, 2018 in Fuertes Gimeno Comunicaciones S.L. (“FGC”).

Founded in 1998, FGC is a Spanish engineering company that provides a wide range of services to telecom carriers and equipment vendors for the deployment, maintenance, upgrade and optimisation of mobile and fixed networks. Such services include consultancy, outsourcing of qualified personnel, site location management, first line maintenance of network, and engineering projects. As a trusted contractor of blue-chip equipment vendors and telecom carriers, FGC has enjoyed barriers of entry and the opportunity to serve its clients’ needs in Spain and internationally. As a result, FGC serves its main clients in Spain, Germany, UK, Mexico and other ten Latin American countries (“LatAm”).

Nexxus Iberia believes that FGC is in a great position to profit from the strong investments by telecom carriers in mobile and fixed networks, which are driven by the increase in data consumption, new network applications (e.g. the Internet of Things) and the increase in demand for faster data. Ultimately, this will lead to the deployment of 5G technology that will require significantly larger investments than in the current 4G environment. Nexxus Iberia will support FGC’s management team in capturing this opportunity whilst consolidating and expanding its international presence in Europe and LatAm.

Maite Ballester, Managing Partner at Nexxus Iberia commented: “This investment is in the fairway of Nexxus Iberia’s strategy, as we are investing in an internationalized Spanish SME, with over 60% of its revenues in Spain and nearly 40% from LatAm. It validates our original thesis that having on-the-ground presence in LatAm to support growth in the region is compelling to Spanish companies”. Pablo Gallo, Partner at Nexxus Iberia commented: “Mr. Fuertes, the founder of FGC and Mr. Vidal de Torres, the Chief Executive, together with an excellent human team, have built a solid business that has the trust of its clients internationally, and we look forward to supporting it in the next level of its development”.

Mr. Fuertes, Founder of FGC, commented: “We believe that Nexxus Iberia is the ideal partner to support us in our growth plan and in the path to best serving our clients in Spain and internationally”. Mr. Vidal de Torres, the Chief Executive of FGC, commented: “We found the approach and positioning of Nexxus Iberia compelling, and we look forward to working with them as our partners as we continue to support our clients in Spain, LatAm and Europe”.

EY and Garrigues acted as advisors in the deal, and Candesic carried out the commercial review.

About Nexxus Iberia
Nexxus Iberia is a private equity fund manager founded in 2016 to support Spanish and Portuguese small to midsized companies to accelerate growth and expand internationally in Europe and LatAm via Mexico. The team is led by three partners coming from 3i and Nexxus who have over 20 years’ experience in the private equity industry in Spain and Mexico. Including this transaction, the dedicated team has completed 21 investments and has fully divested from 20 portfolio companies in the Spanish and Portuguese midmarket. During 2018 three additional investment executives have been incorporated. Two of which, Javier Onieva and Jaime Gómez come from 3i, where they worked for seven and one year respectively. The third one, Carlos Pascual, comes from the French fund Archimed.

Nexxus Iberia is the result of a partnership with Nexxus, one of the largest independent alternative asset managers in Mexico, which has raised seven funds with aggregate capital commitments of over US$1.5 billion. Nexxus Iberia’s goal is to grow portfolio companies internationally including to Mexico and LatAm leveraging on Nexxus’ extensive knowledge of the Mexican market and its areas of influence, where the team has completed over 25 investments and 12 divestments since 1998.

Nexxus Iberia Private Equity Fund I, FCR is expected to reach its target size of €200 million by the end of 2018. The Fund is expected to make 8 to 10 majority or minority investments in Iberian mid-market companies that are typically entrepreneurially-run and/or family owned.

Nexxus Iberia continues to review investment opportunities in the Spanish and Portuguese mid-market where value can be enhanced through high growth, improved operations, management reinforcement, add-on acquisitions and internationalisation.

Nexxus Iberia’s vision is to be the first point of call for managers of companies of the Iberian mid-market looking for a shareholder that can support them in growing their companies internationally, namely in LatAm.

For further information on Nexxus Iberia visit www.nexxus-iberia.com, www.nexxuscapital.com or contact: Investor Relations [email protected]