CMS advises NJJ and Horizon Capital on acquisition of Datagroup-Volia and Lifecell in Ukraine

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.

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).