Fibrus secures £100m of new funding to reach half a million homes

Full Fibre broadband provider, Fibrus, today announced that it has secured an additional £100 million tranche of Senior Debt, which means the company is fully funded to complete its rural roll- out plan and reach half a million homes across Northern Ireland and Cumbria within the next two years.

The package is an increase to its existing £200million senior debt facility and £20million revolving credit facility. The amendment to the existing facility was supported by all its existing lenders: UKIB, ING, LBBW, ABN Amro, Natwest and Sabadell, and three of these lenders are contributing to the £100million accordion facility.

The £320million of committed debt sits alongside around £200million in current and committed equity funding and £325million of government funding. In total, this amounts to £845million to deliver fibre broadband to underserved rural and regional homes, in some of the hardest to reach areas of the country.

Fibrus has largely completed its build programme in Northern Ireland, and already offers its services to 315,000 homes: 245,000 through its commercially funded build programme, and a further 70,000 through the Government funded Project Stratum, which was completed on time and on budget.

In Cumbria, Fibrus has already delivered connectivity to over 60,000 homes, which will increase to close to 170,000 within the next two years and is now fully funded by this debt raise.

Dominic Kearns, Founder & CEO, said: “We are absolutely delighted to have secured this additional tranche of debt funding with the support from our existing lenders. Receiving this £100m commitment in today’s very challenging market is particularly pleasing and is a huge vote of confidence in our business.

We are now fully funded for all our existing programmes, and within two years we will have built to half a million properties that can benefit from broadband that is done right.”

Colin Hutchinson, CFO of Fibrus and who led on the fundraise said: “This £100 million funding will enable Fibrus to continue in its mission to transform the lives of customers who had previously been left behind. The support from our existing lenders, including UKIB who are contributing £55 million, demonstrates the strength of our plans to bring a faster, more reliable, and affordable broadband service to the hardest to reach parts of Northern Ireland and now Cumbria. The need for Fibrus is clear in the level of penetration we are achieving, particularly in Cumbria where penetration regularly exceeds 30% within a few months of launch.

“The Fibrus roll out in Northern Ireland has made a significant contribution to the digital connectivity landscape, with the region now enjoying the highest rate of connectivity of all the UK regions – sitting at 91% coverage against a UK average of 56%.”
 

Fibrus is now the number one fibre provider in its connectable footprint. The company’s customer base continues to increase, reaching 90,000 connected customers in July, and achieving a penetration level of 23%.

Fibrus has quickly become a household name in the areas in which it operates, with a high-quality product and great customer service, and leveraging an effective go-to-market strategy, where local rollouts are followed by community-focused sponsorships and ongoing community investment.

What’s more, Fibrus recently announced an additional £120,000 of funding to combat digital poverty across Northern Ireland and Cumbria via the Fibrus Community Fund. This sits alongside the £50,000 Play it Forward Fund which supports grass roots sports clubs within its connectable areas.