Open Fiber expanded the project financing to support the new business plan approved in May, now equal to over 4,1 billion. "The line of financing is the largest structured finance operation aimed at the development of a fiber optic access network in Europe", reads the note from the group.
In detail, the company has defined with a pool of banks (Bnp Paribas, Société Générale and UniCredit) the terms for the increase in the amount of the project financing signed in 2018 for an additional 675 million euros. The value of the loan will thus rise from 3,5 billion to 4,145 billion total euros. The operation must now be examined by the other lenders of the company for the operational implementation of the agreement. The duration of the operation remains unchanged, which unfolds over a period of 7 years, i.e. until 2025, considering the launch in 2018.
The industrial plan in its entirety, public and private investment, thus comes to be worth over 7 billion euros (of which over 3 billion have already been completed) and plans to connect around 20 million real estate units in the country both in urban areas (black areas) , both in the more isolated and smaller centers (white areas) and in the gray areas, typically industrial districts and city suburbs, helping to bridge the country's digital divide.
"The expansion of the loan, together with the capital injection recently subscribed by the shareholders in support of the new Business Plan of the Company - declared Elisabetta Ripa, Chief Executive Officer of Open Fiber – is concrete evidence of the appreciation by our stakeholders of the progress achieved in the creation of a modern infrastructure entirely in fiber and of the investments made to generate shared value for the whole country”.
“The feedback from the organizing banks – continues CFO Mario Rossetti – is further confirmation of how the model of neutral access network, open to all operators, is the preferred one not only by our client operators but also by financial investors and infrastructure funds ”.
