Cellcom Israel and Israel Infrastructure Fund to acquire 70% in Israel Broadband Company for $29m.

Cellcom Israel and IIF entered partnership agreements for the purchase of 70% of IBC's, provider of fiber infrastructure services for service providers in Israel, share capital by the jointly and equally owned limited partnership. For a total amount of ILS103.5m, to be provided partly as investment and partly as shareholders' loan, thebidders will own 70% of IBC's issued and outstanding share capital and the other 30% of IBC will be owned by Israeli Electric Company. Nir Sztern, Cellcom Israel's CEO said "Signing the definitive agreements for Cellcom and IIF's investment in IBC is a giant step toward a new age in Israel's internet infrastructure. Once the necessary approvals are received and the transaction is completed, IBC, under its new ownership of Cellcom, IIF and IEC, would have the ability to bring the fiber-optic message of a up to 1 gigabyte per second, to over 1 million Israeli households in 5 years."