DigitalBridge backs British fibre with £295 million
Summary
In addition to the equity investment from DigitalBridge, Netomnia and YouFibre also received commitments from existing shareholders Soho Square Capital LLP and Advencap Limited.Netomnia provides full fibre broadband infrastructure, while YouFibre is an ISP.Jeremy Chelot, CEO of both Netomnia and YouFibre, said: We are thrilled to partner with DigitalBridge and benefit from their support and industry expertise as we work towards our target of one million premises passed in the next two years. We are scaling rapidly and aim to play an active role in unleashing the UKs digital potential by delivering the benefits that come with multi-gigabit fibre broadband.Chelot established the companies after leaving is role as non-executive director of ISPA UK in 2019.Last year Netomnia and YouFibre raised \xa3123 million to support the national expansion of ultra-fast full-fibre broadband.That funding round saw a \xa320 million contribution from ESO Capital Partners and \xa325 million from AdvenCap with a \xa373 million loan from Avenue Capital Group and the remaining \xa35 million contributed by the founders.Manjari Govada, Principal at DigitalBridge said: We have known Jeremy for several years and are excited to partner with him in scaling the Group into a premier fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) provider in the UK. We have been highly impressed with the growth of the business and the best-in-class team he has assembled.Vinson & Elkins L.L.P. served as legal counsel to DigitalBridge and Stephenson Harwood LLP advised The Group and the existing shareholders in connection with the transaction. The Group was advised by independent investment bank Greenhill.