Infracapital, the infrastructure investment arm of M&G Investments, has provided a further £60 million of equity funding to Gigaclear, a leading provider of ultrafast broadband to rural areas in Britain.
The investment is part of a wider equity funding round by Gigaclear totalling £111 million to build new full fibre networks and accelerate the company’s expansion plans. Infracapital’s investment is through its greenfield infrastructure strategy, on behalf of a wide range of institutional and pension fund clients, including a UK local authority pension fund.
Other investors include Woodford Investment Management, which has committed a follow-on investment of £15 million, and RPMI Railpen, which has committed £35 million. Infracapital remains the largest shareholder in Gigaclear.
In recent months, Gigaclear has won significant tenders to deliver its broadband network to hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses across Devon, Somerset, Gloucestershire, Herefordshire and Northamptonshire through the Government-backed Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) programme. This new investment will help to accelerate the roll out of ultrafast broadband connectivity, helping to bridge the gap between rural and urban broadband access.
Ed Clarke, Co-Founder and Director, Infracapital, says:
“We are playing an important role in getting the UK connected through our investment in Gigaclear. This is a unique opportunity to invest at an early stage in the development of high speed communications infrastructure for the UK’s underserved rural population. Gigaclear has enormous growth potential and we look forward to supporting its management team in the build out of fast, high quality broadband connectivity.
“Greenfield infrastructure projects such as this offer institutional and pension fund investors early access to assets that over the longer-term can generate predictable cashflows increasing in line with inflation.”
Matthew Hare, Chief Executive, Gigaclear, says:
“Full fibre is the future. This latest round of investment will enable Gigaclear to step up our speed of network delivery and is a clear signal of the confidence investors have in our continued expansion and success.
“Millions of rural homes and businesses across the country need better broadband and we want to reach as many of those in rural areas as quickly as possible. Our pure fibre network Infracapital is a division of M&G Investment Management Limited and M&G Alternatives Investment Limited. M&G Investment Management Limited and M&G Alternatives Investment Management Limited are both authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and are registered in England and Wales under number 936683 and 2059989 respectively. The registered office is Laurence Pountney Hill, London EC4R 0HH. MAY 11 /33340 transforms lives by providing access to the fastest internet speeds to be found anywhere in the world and technologically future-proofing these rural communities for years to come.”
We are playing an important role in getting the UK connected through our investment in Gigaclear. This is a unique opportunity to invest at an early stage in the development of high speed communications infrastructure for the UK’s underserved rural population. Gigaclear has enormous growth potential and we look forward to supporting its management team in the build out of fast, high quality broadband connectivity.
Ed Clarke,
Co-Founder and Director, Infracapital