The Paris-based capital management company Ardian has signed a contract to purchase Iceland’s biggest telecommunications infrastructure company, Míla. The government has put certain conditions in place for the take-over, but the company expects to keep the asset for many years, and the head of the regulator says he does not foresee conflict with the new foreign owners.

Ardian became an independent company in 2013, majority owned by insurance companies and pension funds across Europe, after its initial founding in 1996 as the investments arm of French insurer AXA. The company specializes in infrastructure investments and says it will not sell any part of Míla on to Russian or Chinese investors.

Míla operates telecommunications infrastructure, directing telephone, internet, and television data around Iceland and out into the wider world.

The price tag is 78 billion Icelandic krónur.