Stephenson Harwood LLP has advised Covage, the third-largest B2B telecoms infrastructure operator in France, in connection with the acquisition of strategic assets comprising part of the optical fibre network of Trinaps, an independent cloud, cyber and telecoms operator.
Covage Infra, a subsidiary of Groupe Altitude, is the only wholesale operator able to offer the full range of fibre and 5G solutions exclusively dedicated to the French business market. More than 200 operators rely on its networks to provide high-speed, high value-added connectivity to businesses and public entities. The Covage network serves 150,000 end customers and covers 70% of French businesses, with dedicated fibre (FTTO) and 75% with shared fibre (FTTH Pro). The operator offers connectivity solutions closely aligned with business needs, through a team of 360 experts spread across 22 offices throughout France.
Founded in 2007 in Belfort, Trinaps is an independent cloud, cyber and telecoms operator whose primary objective is to address issues of sovereignty, trust and resilience, in line with ISO 27001 and Health Data Host (HDS) certifications. With Extendo Datacenter, its own data centre, Trinaps guarantees its clients secure hosting solutions that meet the highest standards of performance and data protection.
The strategic partnership between Covage and Trinaps — built on the asset transfer and a collaboration spanning more than fifteen years — strengthens Covage's position in the B2B market. By integrating the 450 km of optical fibre deployed by the Belfort-based operator across Franche-Comté and Alsace, Covage enhances its offering in key economic areas. Trinaps can now focus on its engineering services and leverage Covage's infrastructure to scale its cloud, cybersecurity and critical infrastructure managed services solutions at a national level.
The Stephenson Harwood team, led by our Paris office, advising Covage on the transactional and Corporate M&A aspects was led by Guillaume Briant, Partner, supported by Ali Hilass, Managing Associate, and Lila Monnier-Desesquelles, Associate. The M&A team was assisted on tax matters by Evelyne Bagdassarian, Partner. This transaction reflects the deep sector expertise developed by Guillaume Briant in the telecoms space and illustrates the Corporate M&A team's ability to build lasting client relationships in order to provide tailored advice aligned with each client's specific challenges and objectives.
