Sale of STELLA TELECOM to alternative elecom operator CELESTE

Paris, June 24, 2020 – TwinL, specialized in corporate sales and acquisitions, announces the acquisition of the STELLA TELECOM Group by CELESTE.

STELLA TELECOM (CA 2019: € 15M), Telecom Operator for companies and local authorities founded more than 20 years ago and still led by Laurent Bernauer its CEO, had entrusted an Exclusive Mandate of Sale to TwinL. STELLA TELECOM is one of the leaders of Alternative Operators dedicated to companies and public authorities with a generalist offer (provision of Internet access solutions, MPLS VPN, fixed and mobile telephony, web and cloud application hosting).

CELESTE, the alternative operator created in 2001, aims to become the number 1 in the 100% enterprise optical fibre market. With the acquisition of the STELLA TELECOM Group, it is a new step forward for the operator, despite the difficult period imposed by the Covid crisis! After this 5th acquisition in less than 18 months, CELESTE is now present in the Hauts de France, Auvergne Rhône-Alpes, Midi-Pyrénées and is strengthening in the south of France with a presence at both ends of the Paca region, on the regions of Aix and Nice even if the Stella Group has a National profile with a presence in IDF with its datacenter of Asnières sur Seine.

‘Initially, CELESTE had an extremely interesting industrial project, with the ambition of becoming the first operator dedicated to companies in the fiber optic market. Another reason for our choice is the complementarity on our different product lines. Finally, STELLA TELECOM has a level of automation and «packaged» service offers that is really interesting for CELESTE which has a very nice infrastructure in its own: in short, we are really very complementary, that’s why we chose it,” says Laurent Bernauer, CEO of Stella Group.

The TwinL team was tasked by the STELLA TELECOM Group executives with the overall management of the divestiture process: for this mission, TwinL approached the main market players in France and Europe before completing the discussions and negotiation of the agreements with CELESTE until closing.

As such, STELLA TELECOM received constant attention: «Always accessible, always available. We have their cell phones and they even pick up late at night. Whenever questions arose, they were there to explain and reassure us.”

As an investment bank dedicated to business leaders in the €5 to €50 million segment, TwinL offers its expertise to SMEs-SMIs seeking to carry out a balance sheet transaction (Sale-Acquisition-LBO-OBO, etc.) in France or internationally through its M&A Transnational network and has been built, in 15 years of existence, a solid reputation among business leaders.

Read the full interview with Laurent Bernauer, President of Stella Telecom.