FTTH sector provides Infra boost
Check out a whole range of fibre to the home (FTTH) deals done in the months leading up to lockdown. An article written by our experts Laurent Chabot and Jonathan Tweed in the PFI Global Infrastructure Report June 2020.
The lockdown has highlighted that fibre is an essential public service. The business case for digital infrastructure assets is strong and we continue to see a resilience in the appetite from both banks and institutional investors, with significant financial closes in the past three months, ongoing processes and new opportunities.
The amount of the FTTH financings in Europe in the past 18 months is unprecedented, with jumbo deals such as the so-called Piano and Violin transactions in France; Inexio and Deutsche Glasfaser in Germany; Cityfibre and Hyperoptic in the UK.
There had been previously visible transactions, such as the landmark €3.4bn financing of Open Fibre in Italy in August 2018, Ufinet in Spain and a string of concession projects in France since 2016, but the size, the number and the variety of FTTH deals – in terms of jurisdictions, financial structures and revenue profiles – in 2019 and Q1 2020 is striking.
Societe Generale had a major role in most of these transactions, with 20 deals and over €15bn in financings either as financial adviser and/or lead bank in a half dozen countries.