The China Central and Eastern Europe Investment Co-Operation Fund has announced it is finalising its plans to buy a controlling stake in a Polish engineering company delivering services for the telecommunications sector, Electronic Control Systems (ECS) as a part of the strategy adopted by the Chinese Fund to invest and develop the infrastructure business market in the Central and Eastern European region, it says.
The transaction is expected to close in February and no further financial details have been disclosed.
The fund is striving to build its own telecommunications infrastructure which could be shared by the operators under a long-term lease model which, it hopes, would help drive down the capital expenditures in the future. At the same time, the China CEE Investment Fund will focus on establishing contacts with new clients in the region and supporting its sales.
ECS provides turnkey services for mobile operators such as construction works, building networks and installations, optimising RANs, conducting networks tests and electromagnetic field measurements as well as traffic maintenance and management. The company currently hires around 200 experts and offers services to mobile telecommunications and businesses providing operators both in Poland and to foreign markets. Recently, ECS has expanded its operations to Germany, Denmark and Slovakia.
The China-CEE Investment Fund is advised by CEE Equity Partners on this transaction.
“We are very pleased to be able to cooperate with ECS and support its ambitious development strategy. The company’s team of managers was of key importance for us as it is a very active and innovative group that has been consistently building their business and competences as well as developing contacts with key clients. The consolidation of this unique experience on the Polish market and the fund’s capital should enable the construction of a mobile communications infrastructure for lease in Poland. This model has been working successfully in Western Europe, both Americas and Africa. With such a well-established model showing broad success, it would be a shame if it was not developed in such a prospective market like Poland as it provides financial profits for operators and as a result, better coverage and satisfaction for clients and end-users,” says Investment Director, CEE Equity Partners, responsible for the investment project with ECS, Janusz Skrzypkowski.