Global law firm Clifford Chance has advised the lenders in relation to a new debt facility of up to £1.5 billion for Gigaclear, the UK’s largest rural alternative network provider of full fibre broadband.
The new debt facility is split between an upfront facility of c.£1bn and an uncommitted accordion of c.£500m and is provided by a consortium of banks. The transaction will benefit from the UK Infrastructure Bank’s Guarantee Scheme, guaranteeing £240 million of commitments.
The facility will be used to accelerate the telecom company’s long-term plans to provide service to more than a million rural premises by 2027.
Gigaclear is principally owned by Infracapital, the infrastructure equity investment arm of M&G Plc, together with Equitix and Railpen.
The multi-disciplinary team was led by Julia House (partner), with support from Lucinda Hamilton (director), Skanda Kumble (senior associate) and Arpan Bhatt, Jack Edwards and Daniil Alexandrenko (associates) in the Infrastructure finance team. Will Winterton (partner) and Arshak Mkrtchyan (senior associate) advised on hedging. Jemma Dick (partner) and Alex Shaw (associate) advised on tax while Diego Ballon Ossio (partner), Charles Morris (senior associate) and Georgios Pantelias (associate) advised on financial regulatory matters.
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