The Madrid fund Asterion Industrial Partners has bought the Catalan telecom operator Xarxa de Telecomunicaciones Alternatives (XTA), founded in 2009 in Vilafranca del Penedès.
The price of the operation is confidential, although it comfortably exceeds one million euros. "In 2022, XTA billed around 8 million euros and obtained an Ebitda (gross profit) of 40% on sales," Jordi Bastardas, founder and former owner of the business, who will continue to lead the management, details to this newspaper.
Asterion Industrial Partners, which has channeled the investment through the company Olin Group, will execute an ambitious growth plan that includes investing up to 100 million in the growth of XTA throughout Catalonia.
The telephone operator was born with the purpose of bringing Wi-Fi connection to the rural areas of Penedès. "We started by installing radio frequency antennas in bell towers and soccer fields in small towns in the area and, over the years, we expanded the business towards the installation of fiber optics in industrial estates and larger towns." To date, the company concentrated its service on the Penedès and its borders and now it intends to cover the entire Catalan market.
"Some 70 million euros will go to the acquisition of a dozen local telephone operators and some 30 million to the organic growth of the brand, which will maintain its name," says Bastardas. To carry out this growth, the company plans to increase the workforce from 70 to 200 workers, which is now concentrated in the headquarters, located in the municipality of La Granada, near Vilafranca.
XTA's billing forecast will vary based on acquisitions. "If the entire growth plan is executed, in two years we can reach a turnover of 50 million euros and if we do not make any acquisitions, we will double the revenue figure," says the general manager.
The Madrid fund –directed by Jesús Olmos, Winnie Wutte and Guido Mitrani– wants to turn XTA into a Catalan-wide telemarketer. It is a strategy that is also being carried out in other communities with the acquisition of local companies such as Comenersol, in Alicante; Cartago Telecom, in Murcia; Waytel, Olin and Telecable de Almonte, all three based in Andalusia, and ConectaT, in Asturias.
