French billionaire Xavier Niel has increased his investment holding’s stake in Irish telecoms company Eir.

As reported by The Sunday Times, Niel has increased his stake in the company after US hedge fund Davidson Kempner completed its exit from the company last month.

Davidson Kempner sold its 8.9 percent stake in Eir, a fixed line and mobile services provider with around 2 million customers, to holding company Carraun Telecom in three tranches.

The filing didn’t specify how much Davidson Kempner sold its stake for.

It means that NJJ Boru, the investment company controlled by Niel and his telecoms giant Iliad Group, now controls Eir alongside Anchorage Capital, another US private equity firm.

At present, NJJ Boru controls more than 70 percent of the telco.

The shares that Davidson Kempner are reportedly being bought back and canceled.

Anchorage and Davidson Kempner had built up a 56 percent stake in Eir after the telco’s exit from examinership in 2012. Eir was once state-owned.

NJJ Boru then acquired a controlling 64.5 percent stake in Eir in 2017, meaning that Davidson Kempner and Anchorage had a combined 35.5 percent holding.

Eir is currently deploying its fiber network across the country, investing €500 million ($545m) to roll out fiber to 1.9 million premises across urban and suburban Ireland. The company has also invested €250m ($272m) to update and expand its mobile network.

French tycoon Niel has built a telco empire across Europe. The Iliad founder also holds a stake in UK operator Vodafone, plus Luxembourg’s Millicom International Cellular (MIC), and in November he took a six percent stake in Belgian telco Proximus.

Last year he also completed the double acquisition of Lifecell and Datagroup-Volia in Ukraine from Turkish carrier Turkcell for $524.3 million.

Niel said the deal in Ukraine aims to establish a “telecoms champion” in the country, as he combines Lifecell and Datagroup-Volia into one entity.