Cordiant Digital Infrastructure Ltd (LSE:CORD), the investment group, is making its fourth significant acquisition, purchasing Irish firm Speed Fibre DAC for €97 million, a company statement revealed.
The acquisition values Ireland’s leading open access fibre infrastructure provider at an €190.5 million enterprise value. Cordiant will acquire the entire issued share capital from the Irish Infrastructure Fund later this year.
Managing 5,400 km of owned and leased fibre and wireless networks across Ireland, Speed Fibre will be bought with €68 million in cash and €29 million via a four-year loan with an a initial interest rate of 6%.
Shonaid Jemmett-Page, chairman of Cordiant, said: “Speed Fibre operates in a new market for CORD where data consumption growth is expected to be among the highest in Europe. This provides additional portfolio cash flow supported by high visibility revenues from wholesale contracts with global blue-chip customers and offers the potential to generate long-term value and attractive returns to shareholders.”
Generating revenues of €80 million in 2022, the Irish group posted €23 million in underlying earnings and reported gross debt of €111 million, balanced out by €19 million cash.
Steven Marshall, chairman of digital infrastructure at parent company Cordiant Capital, added: “We are delighted to add another pillar to the company's portfolio. We expect to drive organic growth from existing customer traffic on its current network plus invest growth capex in new strategic fibre projects around Ireland and beyond.”
Cordiant Digital Infrastructure lifted a little over 0.1% in early Thursday trading, having opened at just over 71p.