CityFibre completes mammoth £4.9bn debt raise

In what has been hailed as one of Europe’s largest ever full fibre financings CityFibre has secured a £4.9bn debt package comprising committed facilities of £3.9bn and an accordion facility of £1bn.

The deal fully finances CityFibre’s eight million home roll out – a third of the UK market by 2025 – as well as enabling upweighted participation in BDUK’s Project Gigabit rural programme.
   
The financing follows £1.125bn in equity investments that CityFibre has closed in the last ten months.
 
CityFibre claims that the equity funds will establish the UK’s first large scale, carrier neutral full fibre infrastructure platform, giving ISPs and mobile operators access to its fixed line network.
 
CityFibre CEO Greg Mesch (pictured) said: “With our roll out 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 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.”