Everything you need to know about regional provider consolidation

The consolidation of the provider market has seen increasingly demanding financial players, as well as a growing volume of conversations for mergers between ISPs of different sizes. According to consultancy Advisia, 20 to 25 providers are already emerging as candidates for market “consolidators”. A very present topic at the Abrint 2019 national meeting.

It's not a matter of size, but of profile. Consolidators are expansionist and/or acquisitionist companies. They are very attractive for funds, and some already have them in share capital or with 100% of capital held. There is a lot of real M&A activity and practically all 20 or 25 consolidators are being approached with great intensity by financial agents, from advisors to funds”, analyzed Advisia Investimentos partner, Rodrigo Leite.

“Regional, local and small companies have been prospecting and thinking about aggregations all the time. The locals mainly.” Therefore, we can characterize ISPs into four distinct groups, shown in the table below. All together, there would be around 13.4 million fixed broadband accesses, 6.6 million of which are still underreported to Anatel. Regional providers hold 35% of the Brazilian Internet market and still have a lot of space. 

What does the current regional provider consolidation look like?

Despite the prognosis, the current consolidation scenario is very different from what was seen a few years ago, argued the CEO of Triple Play, Gilbert Minionis. Managed by the Acon Investments Group, the company brings together 6 ISPs acquired since 2016. With the credentials of operator and fund representative, Minionis stated that “in the last three years, everything has changed” on the horizon of mergers and acquisitions. “We had a lot of organization, with each provider thinking about whether to monetize the effort of so many years of work. Today there is more offer for investors than four years ago, when they wanted to buy and there was no option. Which makes them more demanding”, he argued.

“The biggest consolidator of the provider market is the provider itself, who is doing or thinking about doing business within the sector”. Both large and family funds “sat down on several operations, did a lot of due diligence, but few operations took place.” The situation would have “shook and woken up” several companies in the segment. They began to put their house in order, also seeking to unite with competitors.

A recent merger in the sector was led by the Vinci fund, which brought together eight Minas Gerais providers under the Vero brand – in a process that included assistance from Advisia. Rodrigo Leite, however, notes that many operational and tax steps need to be taken by those interested in mergers before the decision is made. “A lot of people are talking about bringing together three, five, eight companies, but it’s not that easy,” he warned.

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