Linklaters advises nexfibre and its investors on the £2 billion acquisition of Substantial Group

Linklaters has advised nexfibre and its investors, InfraVia, Liberty Global and Telefónica, on the £2 billion acquisition of the UK’s second largest alternative fibre provider, Substantial Group.

This is a landmark transaction for the UK fibre market, creating the largest alternative fibre platform in the UK, and will unlock £3.5 billion of international investment in the UK market.

Substantial Group, owned by investors Advencap, DigitalBridge and Soho Square Capital, is expected to have more than 3.4 million fibre premises and over 500,000 customers by completion. 

InfraVia, Liberty Global and Telefónica are committing £1bn in new net funding for nexfibre to fund the transaction – made up of £850m from InfraVia and £150m jointly from Liberty Global and Telefónica, with Virgin Media O2 committing traffic on 4.6m overlapping and adjacent homes.

The cross-practice team was led by Corporate Partners Daniel Law and Alistair Fraser and TMT Partner Julian Cunningham-Day.