ISP Swish Fibre in £250m Deal to Deploy 10Gbps UK Broadband

New UK ISP Swish Fibre, which only recently entered the market (here), has been acquired by Fern Trading Ltd as part of a “long-term funding deal” that they say will enable them to unlock £250m of investment and begin their roll-out of a 10Gbps Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network to cover 250,000 premises (starting outside London).

As we reported in August, the provider has already attracted a fairly experienced management team. The company’s CEO is also Brice Yharrassarry and he is most recognisable as the French Founder and Director of Akuo Energy, which is an international renewable energy company that delivered over 70 infrastructure projects valued at over $2.5bn.

Meanwhile if the name Fern Trading Limited (Fern) – advised by Octopus Investments – sounds familiar then that’s because they’ve also acquired another alternative “full fibre” network ISP called Jurassic Fibre. Since then JF has started a £250m investment of its own to roll-out their FTTP network across 350,000 homes and businesses in coastal parts of Dorset, Devon and Somerset in England (here).

By contrast Swish Fibre’s (advised by Cameron Barney) build will be focused on some of the more inland parts of Southern England, starting with several unnamed locations that are said to be “within commutable distance” from London, which doesn’t tell us much but more details are due to be revealed soon.

However the ISP has previously indicated that they would aim to tackle “underserved towns and villages where broadband availability is poor and there is strong demand for ultrafast broadband services.”

Brice Yharrassarry, CEO of Swish Fibre, told ISPreview.co.uk:

“We are delighted that Fern, advised by Octopus, has agreed to acquire Swish Fibre and to support our agreed roll-out plans to bring fibre optic broadband to hundreds of thousands of new customers across the Home Counties.”

Paul Latham, CEO of Fern, said:

“Swish Fibre has exciting plans to invest into the infrastructure of local economies in the UK and provide a substantial upgrade to the digital connectivity of communities. It’s a perfect match for Fern, which has a track record of backing experienced management teams to turn such ambitions into reality and provide long term stable returns for its investors.”

Swish Fibre is already an established Openreach Communications Provider and they obtained Code Powers from Ofcom earlier in 2019, which will help to make their street works both cheaper and quicker. The operator has already spoken of their intention to run some of their fibre through Openreach’s existing UK cable ducts and telegraph poles via Physical Infrastructure Access (PIA), as well as building their own ducts.

The build itself is currently due to break its first ground during early (Q1) 2020.

UPDATE 10:47am

Swish Fibre informs us that they are initially looking at towns along the M40 corridor / Chiltern line and have been in discussions with Buckinghamshire County Council for awhile. Designs for their first towns have been completed and a tendering process is said to be underway with several established fibre build contractors. Further details are due soon.