Portmouth's toob secures up to £300m for funding across the South
Portsmouth-based fibre network provider toob has announced that it has secured £160 million of funding to support the company's expansion across the South of England.
The initial £160 million, managed by Ares Management’s infrastructure debt strategy, can also be upsized to £300 million over time through funds managed by the Amber Infrastructure Group.
A managing director for Ares Management, James Fox, said: “We are pleased to be partnering with the high-quality teams at toob and Amber to support the continued rollout of toob’s full fibre network to towns across the South of England. This funding aims to help bring enhanced connectivity to historically underserved areas. We look forward to working closely with Nick and the toob management team as they enter the next phase in their development.”
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toob was advised by Lincoln International, Norton Rose Fulbright, PwC, Altman Solon, and Deloitte. Ares was advised by Ashurst.
Head of asset management at Amber Infrastructure Michael Gregory said: “We are delighted to partner with the team at Ares. This further capital is testament to the strength of the management team and their focus on commercialisation and efficient unit capex metrics. We also look forward to evaluating further M&A opportunities with the support of Ares, as the UK fibre market starts to consolidate.”
The fibre network provider has a 20,000 strong customer base on its full-fibre network coverage and covers 140,000 premises across Southampton and other towns across the South. This new funding will help support the next phase of toob’s expansion to more than 120,000 connected customers on a network of over 300,000 premises.
CEO of toob Nick Parbutt said: “We are delighted to have the financial support of James and the team at Ares. This complements the backing we have enjoyed from Amber Infrastructure since late 2018. toob has always focused on delivering for our customers through a simple and compelling broadband proposition. This investment gives us the capital to extend our network to over 300k premises, and most importantly, it secures the business through to profitability as a platform for growth. With this commitment from Ares and Amber, we can develop toob, either through further network build or M&A activity. We are very pleased that the business and our team have an exciting future ahead of us as we deliver for more communities across the South of England.”
