Telefónica and Vodafone are adding AXA IM as a new investment partner in their Spanish fiber company Fiberpass.

The French fund manager will take around 30-40 percent of the capital for around €450 million ($517.55m), in an operation that values the company at approximately €1.5 billion ($1.73bn) including debt.

Fiberpass was established earlier this year as a 'fiberco' majority-owned by Telefónica, which controlled 63 percent (38 percent through Telefónica España and 25 percent via Telefónica Infra), with 37 percent belonging to Vodafone España, now owned by Zegona.

After the transaction, the shareholding scheme will foreseeably remain with Telefónica as controlling partner, with around 55-60 percent, Vodafone reducing its weight to around fives-10 percent, and AXA IM as third partner with the remaining 30-40 percent.

News that AXA was looking at taking a stake in Fiberpass surfaced in August.

The incorporation of AXA IM takes place in a context of intense creation of 'fibercos' in the Spanish market, where operators such as MasOrange and Vodafone itself have already given entry to funds such as GIC in specific vehicles to monetize fiber deployments. For the digital infrastructure and data center ecosystem, the deal reinforces the figure of the neutral wholesale network as a key platform to support traffic growth, Edge connectivity, and densification of points of presence in Spain.

The fiberco provides wholesale fiber optic and other connectivity services over fiber technology in selected areas of the Spanish market, serving around 1.4 million customers and covering around 3.6-3.65 million real estate units, which represents around 12 percent of Telefónica's national fiber network.

Both Telefónica España and Vodafone España have committed to using Fiberpass' network for their retail and wholesale services for terms of between 25 and 30 years, guaranteeing revenue visibility and an estimated EBITDA of around €125m ($144m) in the early years of the company's operations.