euNetworks Holdings Limited, a dark fiber provider in Western Europe backed by Stonepeak Infrastructure and the Investment Management Corporation of Ontario (IMCO), today announced that it has completed a debt raise of €760m for the purposes of i) refinancing its existing debt and ii) providing undrawn, committed debt facilities to fund the construction and development of fiber infrastructure in Europe.
Debt Refinancing – euNetworks
Overall, euNetworks’ refinancing and sustainability-linked debt funding commitment was provided by 16 banks and institutional investors:
- Banks: Banco Sabadell, DNB, Export Development Canada (EDC), Intesa Sanpaolo, Lloyds Bank, National Australia Bank (NAB), NatWest, NIBC, Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), Santander
- Institutional Investors: Allianz Global Investors, AXA IM Alts, Edmond de Rothschild AM (BRIDGE), MEAG, Schroders Capital, Vantage Infrastructure
This financing includes a committed revolving capital expenditure facility to support euNetworks’ future organic growth and M&A activity.
Use of Proceeds
euNetworks will continue to build and deploy metro (intra-city) and long-haul (inter-city) fiber networks to connect key data centers and data center hubs across the UK and Europe. Specifically, the company will build unique routes, add multiple diverse paths, and extend its reach into key hyperscale data center sites, clusters, and network aggregation points.
euNetworks’ desire to deepen its fiber network footprint is driven by the capacity requirements of its customers in Europe. For example, the company delivers high-bandwidth services to customers in the wholesale, finance, content, media, data center, and enterprise segments.
Debt – as of December 31, 2020
Prior to refinancing its existing debt, euNetworks had a €365m bank loan (Term Loan B) and €45m drawn on its revolving credit facility (RCF), as of December 31, 2020. Therefore, at year-end 2020, the company had total gross interest-bearing borrowings of €410m.
Additionally, euNetworks’ borrowing rate on these bank loans, during 2020, was Euribor + 3.5% per annum. Finally, these prior bank loans were scheduled to mature in January 2025 or ~3 years from today’s refinancing announcement.
Financials
For the year ended December 31, 2020, euNetworks reported revenue of €178.2m and adjusted EBITDA of €111.9m (62.8%. margin). During the same timeframe, euNetworks invested €111.9m in organic capital expenditures to primarily fund fiber builds.
Transaction Advisors – euNetworks, Lenders
euNetworks’ debt advisor for the fiber-related refinancing was RBC Capital Markets. Additionally, euNetworks’ legal advisor was Allen & Overy.
The legal advisor for the lenders (banks and institutional investors) was Latham & Watkins.
euNetworks – Overview
euNetworks owns 22.0k fiber route miles (35.4k fiber route kilometers) throughout Western Europe. Specifically, this fiber network comprises:
- Metro (Intra-City): 1.9k fiber route miles (3.0k fiber route kilometers)
- Long-Haul (Inter-City): 20.1k fiber route miles (32.4k fiber route kilometers)
euNetworks owns and operates 17 fiber-based metropolitan networks across Western Europe, which are interconnected by the company’s long-haul network. Additionally, in terms of data center connectivity, the company’s fiber network directly connects to 455+ different facilities in Europe. Finally, euNetworks owns subsea cable systems, such as Scylla, which connects London, UK and Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
