GCON Pumps Extra £6.2m into UK Gigabit Broadband ISP Voneus UPDATE

Rural network operator and UK ISP Voneus, which aims to cover 370,000 premises via both their gigabit-capable fixed wireless access (FWA) and Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband networks, has just received a further combined capital investment of £6,198,805 from Rural Broadband Solutions Holdings Limited (RBSHL).

Just to recap. Last year’s move to merge SWS Broadband (Rural Broadband Solutions), Cadence Networks and Broadway Partners into Voneus caused some big changes on the investment front (here). The deal meant, among other things, that Rural Broadband Solutions Holdings Limited (RBSHL) now held a significant stake in Voneus, while Global Connectivity PLC (G-CON) retained their existing stake in RBSHL.

Since then, RBHSL has continued to put additional funding into Voneus, which most recently included another capital investment worth £20m during November 2024. The latest development is that GCON has, on 15th January 2025, announced that RBSHL has made a further combined capital investment of £6,198,805 into Voneus by its shareholders.

GCON Market Statement

Global Connectivity plc (AQSE: GCON), a company focused on communication services and technologies that enhance connectivity, and a shareholder in leading UK broadband provider Voneus Limited through its investment in Rural Broadband Solutions Holdings Limited and a shareholder in PLUG Group Limited, announces that on 15 January, a further combined capital investment of £6,198,805 was made into Voneus by its shareholders.

On 21 November 2024, we reported a valuation of £11.7m, which equated to 3.2p per GCON share. With this latest investment, RBSHL’s stake in Voneus remained at 41% after Voneus invested £2,543,236 of the total round of £6,198,805. As in November, Global Connectivity plc again elected not to invest and now owns a 9.0% stake in RBSHL’s common equity.

The intrinsic value of Voneus should be expected to have increased at the point of future investment, which serves to mitigate the effects of dilution for GCON.

The announcement comes at a bit of a difficult period for Voneus, which last month saw them drop out of the Government’s £12m (state aid) Project Gigabit broadband roll-out contract for Mid West Shropshire (here) and suffer a spate of complaints about their legacy network (here).

UPDATE 11th Feb 2025

Article amended to clarify that it is RBHSL investing in Voneus, while GCON has a small stake in RBHSL (circa 9% as announced on 29th Jan). In turn, RBHSL’s stake in Voneus is 41%. GCON is not investing, RBHSL is and the new money is from the 91% owners of RBHSL and not from GCON who are electing not to invest.