With his holding company buying out foreign owners to take control of Wind Mobile, Anthony Lacavera says the next step is to build on the recent success in the upstart wireless carrier’s operating results.

“Before we can go out and talk about a potential partnership, we have to take care of our own backyard,” Lacavera said Tuesday after Globalive Capital announced that it has acquired all of VimpelCom Ltd.’s direct and indirect interest in Wind.

The Lacavera holding company owns 34.25 per cent of Wind and controls 66.68 per cent of its voting shares.

Analysts said the deal stabilizes ownership of Toronto-based Wind, gives owner VimpelCom Ltd. an exit strategy — and breathes life into Ottawa’s ambition for a fourth national wireless carrier. Lacavera said the move signals that “we’re here to stay. It really is business as usual.”

Funded in part by a consortium of domestic and U.S. investors led by Canadian hedge fund West Face Capital, the transaction requires regulatory approval since it involves a change in ownership structure.

Lacavera said he can’t disclose details of each private equity firm’s contribution to the transaction pending regulatory approval. Those unreleased details include whether U.S. or Canadian investors are providing the majority of the roughly $300 million in new financing, which includes about $135 million to be paid out to VimpelCom. The Dutch company had sought to buy the rest of Wind but was rebuffed by Ottawa over foreign ownership rules.

Lacavera said that in addition to the buyout financing, Wind needs funding from the existing consortium or others to upgrade its wireless network, which is concentrated in urban centres in Ontario, Alberta and B.C.

And he said the company needs additional airwave spectrum — the radio frequencies that carry voice, video and data traffic — to improve the speed and coverage of its network.

Wind, which will retain its existing branding, is weighing whether or not to negotiate the purchase of unused spectrum and whether to participate in two federal spectrum auctions scheduled for early 2015.

“Shaw’s got some spectrum out west. Videotron has some spectrum in Ontario, B.C. and Alberta. And Mobilicity has some spectrum. There are also upcoming auctions as well,” Lacavera said.

And while consortium members have not committed to further support, he said an uptick in Wind’s subscriber base over the past year helped secure the latest financing and bodes well for future investment.

Lacavera said the network expansion will require a $300 million to $400 million outlay over the next four to five years.

“We now have ownership stability and certainly we’ve been gaining momentum in the marketplace,” he said. “I think our results have helped attract capital.”

Lacavera added that Wind is not in talks with Quebecor or Mobilicity, another wireless carrier founded after Ottawa’s spectrum auction in 2008.

While Wind has struggled to attract suitable financing and has failed to post the growth initial backers hoped for, Lacavera said the new investment signals faith in the company’s business plan.

Mobilicity, however, has been in creditor protection for nearly a year and did not comment Tuesday on whether it will seek another extension of the protection, which expires on Sept. 26.

Lacavera said the wireless market is growing enough to support Wind’s plans, arguing that the company does not need to take market share from the country’s dominant wireless carriers Telus, Rogers and Bell, which together control about 90 per cent of the market.

Wind is the country’s fourth-largest provider by subscriber base, with 741,000 customers at the end of the second quarter — a 20 per cent gain over the same period last year. The company had $350 million revenue in 2014.

Along with Globalive and West Face, participants identified in the consortium include Lawrence Guffey, a director at T-Mobile USA Inc. and a retired senior managing director of Blackstone Group L.P., Tennenbaum Capital Partners, Serruya Private Equity, and Novus Wireless Communications.

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Greg Boland, president and chief executive officer of West Face Capital, added in the statement that the Canadian federal government’s support for wireless sector competition “has not gone unnoticed by the investment community.”

Barclays analyst Phillip Huang, meanwhile, said in a note that a stable and growing Wind Mobile would reduce the likelihood of Quebecor’s Videotron expanding beyond it home province.