Exclusive: Antin bolsters team, nears full deployment of Fund I

Antin Infrastructure Partners (Antin), the Paris- and London-based firm, has added two fresh recruits to its team of directors.

Aurélie Edus joins Antin’s financing team from UK-headquartered DC Advisory, where she served nine years as a member of the debt advisory team in London and Paris. Robert Segessenmann meanwhile comes from Swiss-based UBS Global Asset Management, where he spent eight years in the infrastructure multi-manager unit in Zurich. He will now strengthen the ranks of Antin’s investor relations team.

The appointments come shortly after the firm acquired the 15 percent stake it did not already own in FPS Towers (FPS), a telecom tower business, from French telephony group Bouygues Telecom. With a portfolio of more than 2,000 towers and nearly 18,000 rooftop terrace sites across France, FPS bills itself as the largest independent company of its kind in the country.

The investment was made Antin Infrastructure Partners I, a vehicle closed in October 2010 on €1.1 billion, thanks to capital the firm had kept in reserve to finance growth and follow-on acquisitions. Following the latest FPS deal the fund is now 85 percent deployed, people with knowledge of the matter told Infrastructure Investor.

Antin Infrastructure Partners II, the vehicle’s successor, reached its final close on its €2 billion hard-cap in June 2014. It is now 60 percent invested, according to sources.

FPS, which posted annual growth of about 30 percent last year, should see sales reach €50 million in 2015, the sources said. It is understood that the company generates operating margins of around 60 percent.

Antin’s team now counts 48 professionals. The firm declined to comment on the FPS deal and fund deployment matters.