CityFibre announced a debt package totalling £4.9bn for underwriting its rollout to a third of the UK market by 2025.
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.
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 UK.
Greg Mesch, Chief Executive Officer of CityFibre, said: “Over the last decade we’ve built a business that has transformed the UK’s digital connectivity landscape for the better. With our rollout now fully financed, backed by so many esteemed financial institutions, we have emerged as a strong national challenger.
“But CityFibre’s aim is not simply to challenge. It’s to be better. It’s to establish ourselves as the preferred network wherever we build, bringing higher-quality, more affordable infrastructure within reach of millions and unleashing the transformative economic potential of Full Fibre to help level up the UK. We have never been more confident that we will succeed.”
