Infracapital Finish Buy of 50% Stake in SSE Enterprise Telecoms UK

Infracapital, which is the infrastructure equity investment arm of M&G Prudential, has this week completed its £380m acquisition of a 50% stake in UK fibre optic comms provider SSE Enterprise Telecoms. The initial £215m will be paid upon the completion and a further £165m via several instalments (subject to future performance).

SSEET builds and manages a 12,000km+ long fibre optic and Ethernet network across the United Kingdom (via 265+ Points of Presence and 80 commercial data centres), which is capable of delivering data speeds up to 10Gbps and even 100Gbps in some areas (a few locations can only handle speeds of up to 1Gbps).

The network itself can be and is being used to supply connectivity / backhaul capacity or cloud services to various different public sector sites and businesses, as well as major mobile network operators (e.g. Three UK, O2) and broadband ISPs (e.g. TalkTalk, HighNet).

Infracapital Statement

This completion of the acquisition creates a shared ownership structure designed to accelerate SSE Enterprise Telecoms’ plans for growth in the fibre sector, reaffirming its ambition to establish itself as a leading UK telecoms provider. The partnership supports SSE Enterprise Telecoms’ commitment to innovation and new technologies which are re-defining the market.

The business will be in an ideal position to propel its existing projects and partnerships in areas such as 5G, SD-WAN and smart cities. The investment also provides an opportunity to further enhance the company’s customer service and delivery approach which is already a core differentiator in the market.

Naturally all of this makes for a good match with Infracapital, which last year gobbled rural fibre optic broadband ISP Gigaclear for £270m (here) and they’re similarly working with WightFibre to roll-out a new FTTH network on the Isle of Wight. The company is also a partner for the Government’s £400m Digital Infrastructure Investment Fund (here).

The infrastructure investor has also previously been linked with TalkTalk’s plans for a new full fibre network to cover 3 million UK premises, but the two sides have been unable to reach an agreement.