CMS has advised a consortium led by NJJ Holding (“NJJ”) – the investment firm owned by Xavier Niel, founder of European telecom group Iliad – and U.S. private equity firm Horizon Capital, on the landmark acquisition of Datagroup-Volia, Ukraine’s leading fixed telecom and pay TV provider, and Lifecell, the country’s third-largest and fastest-growing mobile operator.
This landmark transaction merges Datagroup-Volia and Lifecell, creating a converged telecom platform that will support the continued growth, modernisation, and resilience of Ukraine's telecommunications sector. It represents the first major investment by a new market entrant and strategic investor since the onset of the full-scale war in Ukraine, a testament to the sustained confidence in the country's telecoms industry.
The newly combined platform will deliver mobile connectivity to nearly 10 million Ukrainians, while its fixed network will reach over 4 million households nationwide. Future integration will enable the platform to offer a triple-play service, combining mobile, fixed connectivity, and pay-TV, enhancing service quality, pricing, and the integration of European standards.
Graham Conlon, Corporate Partner at CMS and the lead advisor on the transaction, commented: "We are honoured to have played a role in this historic transaction, which is the culmination of nearly three years of dedicated work by a 45-strong CMS team. The complexity of the deal was significantly heightened by the ongoing full-scale war in Ukraine, making its successful completion even more meaningful. We congratulate NJJ and Horizon Capital on this transformative acquisition. This deal marks a significant milestone not only for Datagroup-Volia and Lifecell but also for Ukraine's telecoms sector, underscoring confidence in its resilience and future growth, despite the challenges posed by the illegal invasion of Ukraine.”
The transaction was managed by a cross-disciplinary CMS team, spanning multiple jurisdictions, led by Corporate partner Graham Conlon and Vitalii Mainarovych, Louise Cakar and Inna Koval (all - Corporate), Kateryna Chechulina acting on the debt financing aspects.
The team also included Oliver Colston-Weeks, Ihor Pavliukov, Valentina Santambrogio, Veliko Savov, Yavor Danailov, Diana Pysarenko, Denys Hatseniuk, Mariana Saienko and Danylo Onyshchenko (Corporate); Duncan Turner and Neil Falconer (IP); Ihor Olekhov, Iryna Barlit, Jenny Allan, Khrystyna Korpan, Ivan Pshyk, Bohdan Ilchenko and Ruslan Dotsenko (Finance); Nataliya Nakonechna, Mykola Heletiy, Olga Bieliakova, Olga Shenk, Will Anderson, Colin Hutton, Iryna Kvasnytsia, Artem Grudinin, Kateryna Korneliuk, Oleksandr Sytnyk, Olga Stetsenko and Volodymyr Kolvakh (Commercial); Natalia Kushniruk, Maksym Morozov, Bohdan Krivuts and Yevhen Chornyi (Real Estate); Alican Babalioglu, Aysegul Onol, Ezgi Bahar and Eylul Sakoglu (CMS Turkey); Jean-Philippe Clement (CMS France); and Martijn van der Bie and Elisabeth Meijenfeldt (CMS Netherlands).