Open Fiber He Completed the expansion of project financing announced in August. "This is the largest structured finance operation currently underway for the development of a fiber optic network in Europe", specifies a note from the company controlled by Enel and CDP.
The funding is worth everything 4,145 billion euros, this is 675 million more than the project defined in 2018 which reached a total of 3,5 billion. It adheres to the project financing a pool of banks institutions composed of Bnp Paribas, Société Générale and UniCredit (institutions that perform the roles of underwriter, global coordinator, global bookrunners e initial mandated lead arrangers); the operation also involves, as lenders, the European Investment Bank, Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, four other Italian banks (Banca IMI, Banco Bpm, Mps Capital Services and Ubi Banca) and six international institutes (Crédit Agricole, Ing , Mufg Bank, Natwest, Banco Santander and Bank of China). Unicredit also plays the role of Agent.
The company considers the operation "a further demonstration of the trust placed by the market in the Open Fiber plan, which, between private and public investment, is worth over 7 billion euros (of which 3 have already been completed) and provides for the connection of around 20 million real estate units in Italy in cities (black areas), in more isolated and small towns (white areas) and in industrial districts (grey areas).
So far, in less than four years since its inception, Open Fiber has connected over 9,5 million real estate units, establishing itself as the first operator in Italy in the field of fully fiber infrastructure, the third in Europe and the first (again in Europe ) among the operators wholesale only. The expansion of the financing plan does not move the dates established for the completion of the plan - which lasted seven years, starting in 2018 and ending in 2025 - but serves, explained OF, both to speed up the creation of wiring made more urgent by the emergency Covid, and to reach some important industrial districts located in the gray areas (neither competitive nor publicly supported), enrich the portfolio of innovative services for businesses.
Meanwhile, the great maneuvers on the ownership structure of Open Fiber continue. The Macquarie fund has offered about three billion euros to buy 50% of OF from Enel. The board of directors of the company led by Francesco Starace meets today, but will not examine the dossier, also because Macquarie's proposal is valid until the end of 2020 and provides for various conditions to be carefully evaluated.
