 |
 |
||
|
|
||
CityFibre completes £4.9B debt raise to finance fiberIndustry Announcements, , 6/2/2022
LONDON – CityFibre, the UK's largest independent carrier-neutral Full Fibre platform, has today confirmed a debt package totalling £4.9bn. These facilities form one of the largest single financings dedicated to Full Fibre deployment across Europe and fully funds CityFibre's rollout to a third of the UK market by 2025. The new banking facilities see CityFibre's Full Fibre infrastructure platform now backed by many of the world's leading financial institutions. The debt raise is underwritten by NatWest, Société Générale, Crédit Agricole CIB, BBVA, Intesa Sanpaolo, ING and SEB; with ABN AMRO, Lloyds Bank and the pensions and M&G Investments, the international asset manager, joining as core lenders. Also participating as a core lender is the recently established UK Infrastructure Bank (UKIB), recognising CityFibre's contribution to critical national infrastructure deployment and the Government's levelling up programme. On behalf of CityFibre, NatWest and Société Générale acted as financial advisors, Lloyds coordinated the UKIB's involvement, and Latham & Watkins acted as legal advisor. The financing follows £1.125bn in equity investments that CityFibre has closed in the last ten months from two new investors, Mubadala and Interogo Holding as well as from existing investors Antin Infrastructure Partners and the Infrastructure business within Goldman Sachs Asset Management. Combined, these debt and equity funds will fully finance the completion of CityFibre's rollout to 8m homes, 800k businesses, 400k public sector sites and 250k 5G access points. They will also establish the UK's first large-scale, carrier-neutral Full Fibre infrastructure platform, providing Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and mobile operators with access to the nation's most advanced fixed-line network and unleashing over £38bn in economic benefits to help level up the UK1. The funds will also enable CityFibre to upweight its participation in BDUK's 'Project Gigabit' rural programme. By extending its networks to rural areas surrounding the 285 cities, towns and villages identified in its existing rollout, CityFibre is well placed to support the Government's rural coverage objective, ensuring that millions of rural homes can enjoy the same high-quality digital infrastructure as urban areas. Read the full press release here. |
Latest Articles
Here's where you can find episode links for 'The Divide,' Light Reading's podcast series featuring conversations with broadband providers and policymakers working to close the digital divide.
As we have for the past two years, Light Reading will present our Cable Next-Gen Europe conference as a free digital symposium on June 21.
Charter has sparked RDOF work in all 24 states where it won bids. The cable op booked about $19 million in RDOF revenues in Q1, and expects to have about $9 million per month come in over the next ten years.
As we have for the past two years, Light Reading will stage the Cable Next-Gen Technologies & Strategies conference as a free digital event over two half-days in mid-March.
Launch of 2-Gig and 5-Gig FTTP tiers in 70-plus markets puts more pressure on cable ops to enhance their existing DOCSIS 3.1 network or accelerate their upgrade activity centered on the new DOCSIS 4.0 specs.
|
|
|
||
