Open Fiber received the "M&A Deal of the Year 2021" award from Project Finance International, an international financial magazine. The company, which is building a fiber optic infrastructure in Italy, has won recognition for having extended the project financing to 7,2 billion euros, plus any additional 2,8 billion to extend the scope of coverage to commercial gray areas. This is the largest financing operation for investments in telecommunications networks ever carried out in the EMEA area (Europe, Middle East and Africa).
In detail, the loan was signed with important Italian and European credit institutions, including Banco BPM, Santander, BNP Paribas, Crédit Agricole, ING, Intesa Sanpaolo, Société Générale and UniCredit.
Il business plan of Open Fiber envisages coverage of 24 million real estate units in all regions of Italy, with a total investment of 15 billion euros. To date the company – which, as a wholesale-only operator, has commercial agreements with over 300 operators – has reached 14 million between homes, businesses and offices of the Public Administration. The network connectivity services implemented so far are available in 220 cities and in over 3.700 small municipalities.
Marco Bigatti, head of finance of Open Fiber, who collected the award on behalf of the company in the context of the PFI Awards, commented: “The award confirms the interest and support of financial investors, in a particularly volatile market context, for a project that is allowing Italy to move up the European rankings in the digital field”.
