International law firm Clifford Chance has advised the lenders on a €417.5 million financing for Meridiam and Magenta Telekom’s Austrian fibre joint venture Alpen Glasfaser. Alpen Glasfaser has raised a €412.5 million CAPEX facility and €5 million revolving credit facility from six major Austrian, German and French banks for its fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) roll-out in Austria. The lending group includes UniCredit Bank Austria, KfW IPEX-Bank, La Banque Postale, Erste Group Bank, Natixis and Hypo NOE.
Alpen Glasfaser, a joint venture between Magenta Telekom and global infrastructure investor Meridiam, is Austria’s largest private fibre partnership to date. By end of 2030, Magenta Telekom and Meridiam intend to jointly invest €1 billion to connect more than 650,000 Austrian households and businesses to high-speed internet (FTTH). Alpen Glasfaser will take care of network construction and passive maintenance, while Magenta Telekom will market the products and services for end customers.
The Clifford Chance team advising the lenders comprised partners Christof Häfner and Tobias Schulten, counsels Radoslav Lolov, Christian Hissnauer and Andreas Ruthemeyer, senior associate Georg Lübbehüsen, associates Franziska Buchholz and Fatma Efe-Resit as well as transaction lawyer Lisha Xu and senior legal support assistant Antonia Kipry (all Finance, Frankfurt), partner Dominik Engl and associate Robert Schmidt (both Tax, Frankfurt) as well as partner Mathias Elspaß and associate Laura-Isabell Dietz (both Corporate/Energy, Düsseldorf). Binder Grösswang advised the lending group on Austrian law aspects.
