Name | Volker Hoffarth |
Position at Deutsche Funkturm GmbH (DFMG) | Head of Treasury |
At DFMG since | June 2021 |
Age | 42 |
Hobbies | Jogging, travelling, spending time with my children |
What connects me to corima is… | … a successful implementation of TMS as part of the carve-out from Deutsche Telekom |
In 10 years… | … hopefully I will have successfully accompanied many exciting financing projects |
corimamagazine: Hello Volker. What does DFMG Deutsche Funkturm GmbH do?
V. Hoffarth: Deutsche Funkturm builds and operates infrastructure for mobile communications providers, broadcasters, operators of radio relay links and for the radio networks of public authorities and other institutions. With a portfolio of around ~35,000 antenna sites, Deutsche Funkturm is the largest operator of radio infrastructure in Germany. It is represented throughout Germany and is headquartered in Münster. Deutsche Funkturm is a subsidiary of GD Towers, which also operates ~7,000 sites in Austria via an Austrian company (#2 in the Austrian market).
As a full-service provider for active and passive infrastructure, Deutsche Funkturm acquires, plans, implements, operates, and markets radio sites. Its portfolio of sites includes towers, masts, rooftop sites, distributed antenna systems (DAS) and small cells. The company was and is significantly involved in the expansion of infrastructures for mobile communications providers in Germany, currently with a focus on LTE and 5G.
corimamagazine: Deutsche Funkturm was founded in 2002 as a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom and has had the American company DigitalBridge and the Canadian company Brookfield as additional owners since 2023. The company was thus separated from the Deutsche Telekom Group. This also meant that an independent treasury department had to be created. That was primarily your task.
What have you and your team achieved to date and what do you still have to do? Didn’t you have to put together a team first?
„In addition to the enormous time pressure, the onboarding of new employees in the new subject areas was one of the biggest challenges.“
V. Hoffarth: After signing the 51% sale to the two financial investors in July 2022, the primary goal was to establish a fully independent treasury department by the closing on 1 February 2023, including IT systems (corima as TMS & another payment system), the underlying processes and accounting structures, the development of cash management capabilities, the adaptation of contracts with banks in payment transactions and guarantee management as well as the recruitment of the entire department, which currently comprises 5 FTEs. In addition to the enormous time pressure, the onboarding of new employees in the new subject areas was one of the biggest challenges. The employees had to quickly familiarize themselves with the new topics to be able to take over the day-to-day business independently from closing. As we also received substantial acquisition financing as a result of the sale, we also had to establish a relationship with the consortium’s core banks and finalize the hedging of our term loans, which had not yet been completed.
corimamagazine: During this process, you chose corima as your TMS and then implemented it. What were the main reasons for choosing our solution?
„Looking back, I can only say that we are very satisfied with our choice and that the corima colleagues are excellent professional partners.“
V. Hoffarth: At the beginning of September, we sent an RfP to the vendors and then critically evaluated numerous solutions. We liked corima very much from the outset, primarily because of its very focused treasury approach, the ability to cover real end-to-end processes (especially in the guarantees area, which some other vendors were unable to do) and a local project team in Germany that provided us with close support during the implementation phase. Another important point was the commitment of the corima team to ensure implementation within a very short time. This together with the appealing personal appearance of the project team in the beauty contest phase were decisive factors in our decision to use corima as our future TMS. Looking back, I can only say that we are very satisfied with our choice and that the corima colleagues are excellent professional partners.
corimamagazine: We are naturally very pleased about that. Where are you now and what are the next steps for you as a company and, of course, as a treasury department?
„…. we can now focus ourselves also to more strategic issues.“
V. Hoffarth: Post-closing, there were still several issues that we had to tackle, as we didn’t have time to do this before closing. In the meantime, we are no longer in project mode, but have arrived well in everyday life – the processes are running, the activities of the team members are becoming more and more routine, and we have moved away from the pure „fire-fighting mode“ that was still very much with us at the beginning. Instead, we can now focus ourselves also to more strategic issues. Our financing and capital structure should be mentioned here as relevant – a topic that will continue to accompany us in the coming months (together with our shareholders and banks).
corimamagazine: Setting up a virtually new team in such a short space of time was certainly a particular challenge. How did you manage that?
V. Hoffarth: That’s right, of course, it always takes a bit of luck to be able to acquire attractive candidates with the relevant qualifications at the right time. Marc Blümel, a „treasury veteran“ with an enormous amount of experience in the treasury sector, certainly deserves special mention in this context. Marc was initially on board as interim manager and provided active support in setting up the department. Fortunately, Marc then enjoyed working with us so much that we were able to recruit him as a permanent team member – a substantial enrichment for the entire team!
corimamagazine: In the hot phase from signing to closing, there won’t have been much room for your hobbies and family. Hopefully things have improved again, haven’t they?
V. Hoffarth: Fortunately, yes – the time between signing and closing as well as the 3-4 months afterwards were quite work-intensive, and I am very grateful that my wife and our two children had my back during that time.
corimamagazine: Dear Volker, thank you very much for taking the time to talk to us. We wish you and your team continued success and good cooperation with corima and us.