Canada's Beanfield Expands Fiber Footprint into Montreal with Acquisition of Openface

Beanfield Technologies Inc., an independent telecommunications infrastructure provider in Canada serving the enterprise, carrier and multi-dwelling units markets, has acquired Openface Inc. ("Openface"), a provider of fiber-based telecom services primarily to small and medium-sized businesses as well as enterprise customers.

Financial terms of the private transaction were not disclosed.

Openface serves a well-diversified customer base spread across Montreal through a portfolio of 100 kilometers of owned fiber, more than 200 on-net buildings, and over 3,000 near-net buildings.

The company maintains its own construction and installation team, which has given Openface a well-earned reputation for expertise in fiber construction and experienced domain knowledge of Montreal and the city's buildings.

As part of the transition, Openface's employees will join Beanfield and the company will maintain its current location in Montreal providing Beanfield with an additional presence in the city.

"We are excited to join forces with Openface and expand our presence into Montreal," said Dan Armstrong, CEO of Beanfield. "This acquisition will allow us to meet our customers' growing connectivity needs as data speed and reliability become increasingly critical to business operations. Furthermore, the combined larger business will ensure customers in Canada's two largest markets can access our best-in-class fiber solutions."

"Beanfield shares a number of our core employee values, as well as our belief that customer relationships and employee engagement are the backbone to our business, which makes this transition an ideal next step in our growth," said Andrew Lassner, CEO at Openface. "I am extremely proud of the growth Openface has had to-date and look forward to watching the company in its next evolution."

The acquisition was funded through an equity commitment from Digital Colony Partners, which made a substantial investment in Beanfield in October 2019. Digital Colony Partners is managed by an affiliate of Digital Colony Management, LLC, the global digital infrastructure investment platform of Colony Capital, Inc. (NYSE: CLNY) and a leading investor, owner and operator of companies enabling the next generation of mobile and internet connectivity.

"Our goal at Digital Colony is to support connectivity around the world through our portfolio of digital infrastructure companies. Beanfield's acquisition of Openface immediately scales its operations in Montreal," noted Steven Sonnenstein, Managing Director at Digital Colony. Sadiq Malik, Principal at the firm added, "We are excited to back Beanfield on this important transaction and to work with the company as it takes this next step forward."

Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP served as legal advisor to Beanfield and TD Securities led on the debt financing, while Spiegel Sohmer served as legal advisor to Openface and Richter served as financial advisor.