CityFibre gets £825 million more investment
Disruptive UK fibre player CityFibre has managed to raise another massive chunk of change in its bid to take on the incumbents.
Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Mubadala and investment fund Interogo are between them chucking £825 million into the pot. Furthermore, perhaps on the back of the investment, CityFibre announced banks are prepared to lend it another £300 million. The money will go towards the target of covering a third of the country by 2025.
“This new capital will not only underpin our rollout to up to 8m homes across 285 cities, towns and villages, but will also enable our participation in the government’s ‘Project Gigabit’ programme to extend our future-proof infrastructure to rural areas and ensure no one is left behind,” said CityFibre CEO Greg Mesch.
“This capital raise is proof of the benefits of a truly competitive infrastructure market, as envisaged by both government and Ofcom. If nurtured and protected, infrastructure competition at scale will continue to unleash huge investment from the private sector as well as catalyse investment from incumbent operators. Ultimately though, it is residents, businesses and the UK economy that stand to benefit, with competition driving what has become the fastest rollout of full fibre in Europe.”
There were various other quotes labouring the point of how great fibre is and how it will make everything better, including the standard opportunism from the UK PM. It’s certainly good news for UK consumers and businesses that in many places they may have three or more fibre providers to choose from and any investment in national infrastructure deserves to be celebrated.