CityFibre passes critical milestone

CityFibre passes critical milestone in its plan to roll-out vital pure fibre infrastructure throughout UK towns and cities CityFibre Holdings Limited has today announced that it has closed a financing facility with Citigroup (“Citi”), secured by CityFibre’s long term contracted customer revenues. Arrangements were also agreed for Citi to assist CityFibre in its future financing requirements. Citi will now join Macquarie Capital in CityFibre’s line-up of lead investment banks. Macquarie Capital were appointed in November last year as the lead advisor to CityFibre in the next stage of its capital formation to realise the company’s plans to build valuable metro based fibre infrastructure in a unique open access wholesale model. CityFibre selected Citi for its consistent leadership in global telecom finance, its standing as a top-tier financing house as well as its commitment to CityFibre’s long term plans. Proceeds from the facility will accelerate CityFibre’s development activities around new business opportunities in the deployment of metro fibre networks throughout the UK’s second tier cities. These cities are suffering from a lack of critical fibre infrastructure, which they see as indispensible to their future economic development. CityFibre has received a high level of interest in its innovative solutions for cities, and the added financial flexibility afforded by the Citi facility will enable the company to more rapidly respond to this demand. Greg Mesch, CityFibre’s CEO commented: “I am delighted to announce the provision of a facility by such a prestigious financial institution as Citi. They understand the vital role of fibre infrastructure and recognise the unprecedented business opportunity afforded by acute underinvestment in the UK. CityFibre is perfectly poised to take full advantage of this unmet demand and looks forward to working with Citi to realise our vision”. Michael Lavelle, Head of EMEA Capital Markets at Citi said, “We are pleased to offer CityFibre this facility as we believe that CityFibre is well-placed to develop its alternative fibre infrastructure offering to serve UK homes and businesses. We look forward to working with CityFibre in its future development.”