Fibrus has announced that it has secured an additional £100 million tranche of senior debt.
The full fibre broadband provider said this means it 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 funding package is an increase to its existing £200 million senior debt facility and £20 million revolving credit facility. The amendment to the existing facility was supported by all its existing lenders: UKIB, ING, LBBW, ABN Amro, NatWest and Sabadell.
The £320 million of committed debt sits alongside around £200 million in current and committed equity funding and £325 million of government funding. In total, this amounts to £845 million in funding.
Fibrus said it has largely completed its build programme in Northern Ireland, with the company currently offering services to 315,000 homes. 245,000 of those were reached through the company’s commercially funded build programme, and a further 70,000 through government funding.
In Cumbria, Fibrus has 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 and CEO (pictured), Fibrus, said, “We are absolutely delighted to have secured this additional tranche of debt funding with the support from our existing lenders.
“Receiving this £100 million 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.”