News

KKR takes a major stake in Hyperoptic

KKR has completed the acquisition of a majority stake in Hyperoptic Ltd, a gigabit broadband provider, from funds managed by Newlight Partners LP and Mubadala Investment Company. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.

Hyperoptic will continue to be led by Chief Executive Officer Dana Tobak, CBE and Executive Chairman Boris Ivanovic. Founded in 2011, Hyperoptic benefits from a full fibre network covering 43 towns and cities across the UK, with gigabit broadband services passing almost 400,000 homes and businesses.

Dana Tobak stated, “We are incredibly grateful to Newlight and Mubadala for their unwavering support and significant contributions to the success of Hyperoptic. Currently, only 8% of the UK has access to full fibre and less than half of that to symmetrical gigabit services.

We are confident that with the support of KKR and their significant expertise enabling high-growth businesses, our ambitious infrastructure plans to build our hyperfast network out to two million homes by 2021 and five million by 2024 will be realised.”

Vincent Policard, Member, and Cristina Gonzalez, Director in European Infrastructure at KKR, said, “Hyperoptic has a market-leading position and superior consumer product. The business is strongly positioned to meet the growing demand for full-fibre services in the UK through further investment and national roll-out, supporting housing development and renovation. Our investment in Hyperoptic builds on KKR’s strong track record in telecommunications infrastructure in Europe, investing in and deploying next-generation digital connectivity.”

David Wassong and Ravi Yadav, co-Managing Partners at Newlight, said, “We are extremely proud to have partnered with the Hyperoptic team during its formative years to build the leading fibre broadband provided in the UK. The roll out of its hyperfast network is poised to expand rapidly in the next few years and we will continue to cheer them on from the sidelines.”