CITIC Telecom International CPC Limited (“CITIC Telecom CPC”), a wholly-owned subsidiary of CITIC Telecom International Holdings Limited (“CITIC Telecom”) (SEHK: 1883) announced it has finalized the acquisition of the telecommunication business of Linx Telecommunications B.V. (Linx Telecommunications), following completion of all regulatory clearances.
The acquisition further extends CITIC Telecom CPC’s global infrastructure and points of presence to the Central Asia, Central and Eastern Europe markets, including regions encompassed by China’s “One Belt, One Road” economic cooperation initiative.
“One Belt One Road is an important part of our growth strategy. We believe Linx’s acquisition is fully complementing CITIC Telecom’s development strategy of ‘keeping Mainland China as the foundation of our business, with Hong Kong and Macau serving as both base and springboard to accelerate our business expansion internationally and global network coverage’,” said Xin Yue Jiang, Chairman of CITIC Telecom International Holdings Limited.
The acquisition will help the Group become a leading ICT service provider to multinational companies and carriers beyond Asia Pacific, he added.
Dr. Tiger Lin, Executive Director and CEO of CITIC Telecom International Holdings Limited said, “Linx’s acquisition is part of the Group’s ongoing strategies. This is a quantum step to foster the Group’s strategic transformation towards mobility and the Internet. It has a clear synergy with the Group’s current business in terms of geographical coverage, customer base and service offerings, allowing our customers to enjoy ubiquitous ICT solutions globally. We will continue to look for these opportunities to drive long-term growth through expansion of core competence and geographical reach.”
CITIC Telecom Eyes Acquisitions for Global Expansion
The acquisition includes Linx’s 470 kilometer submarine fiber network in the Baltic Sea, and its network operations centers (NOCs) in Moscow and Tallinn, Estonia. The acquisition also includes Linx’s data center in Tallinn, which serves as Estonia’s largest Internet Exchange (TLL-IX).
These all cover high-growth potential markets including Russia, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, as well as Kazakhstan and others “Stan” region. Linx Telecommunications team members have also joined CITIC Telecom CPC as part of the acquisition, contributing their technical and Russian language proficiencies with local expertise toward expanding business in the regions.
Mr. Stephen Ho, CEO of CITIC Telecom CPC said: “Completion of the acquisition of Linx’s assets represents a significant milestone along the company’s path to extending our network coverage through Central Asia and into Europe. The addition of Linx’s professional talents, infrastructure, technology and expertise will position CITIC Telecom CPC as a leading ICT service provider to multinational and large companies worldwide. It continues our global footprint expansion, and enhances our full spectrum of managed networking services, cloud computing and other managed value-added data services to businesses around the world.”
CITIC Telecom CPC has worldwide network coverage in over 120 countries with more than 100 Points of Presence (POPs), covering the mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Sydney in Australia, London and Frankfurt in Europe, as well as Los Angeles and New York in the USA.
Synergistically leverage the Linx acquisition, CITIC Telecom CPC can now better serve its customers in further 14 countries with 24 more POPs across Western Europe, Central and Eastern Europe, as well as Central Asia. This fundamentally boosts CITIC Telecom CPC’s access to, and capability to realize, the promise of helping enterprise customers to capture opportunities arising from all these regions, including areas of the “One Belt, One Road” initiative.
Added Mr. Ho: “With the addition of Linx to CITIC Telecom CPC’s portfolio we look forward to serving our customers with greater capabilities and higher synergies, all beneficial to both their business needs and potential expansion plans. In the coming months, we will provide further updates regarding our leverage of the Linx assets, and offer more specific details about how they fit into CITIC Telecom CPC’s direction and business strategies.”
CITIC is especially enthusiastic about the opportunity to expand its services coverage to countries along the new “Silk Road Economic Belt”, particularly those in the Baltic region, which will help enhance the company’s status as a preferred partner by global and regional enterprise customers requiring seamless, high performance and secure network solutions to connect among their points of presence in Greater China, Asia Pacific, and other parts of the world. – BusinessNewsAsia.com