The Thrings Banking and Finance team, assisted by the Corporate team, advised high speed internet infrastructure company Spring Fibre on a deal which secured up to £155 million to support the roll out of its ultrafast full fibre broadband network across England.
The Thrings team, led by Head of Banking and Finance Mike Tomlin, advised Spring on the legal aspects of the deal with investment specialist River and Mercantile (“R&M”).
R&M’s Infrastructure fund invests in long-life income generating assets with outstanding Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) credentials. The fund targets investments in assets related to energy transition or digital transition.
Spring Fibre was founded in 2019 by an experienced industry management team, Kingsley Capital Partners (backed by family offices and known for its creation of new companies) and telecoms specialist Graphite Strategy. It aims to deliver multi-gigabit capable full fibre-optic infrastructure across England, giving residential and commercial customers next generation access to the internet.
Spring Fibre, led by CEO, Ros Singleton, will deploy the company’s network on a wholesale basis, empowering a range of Internet Service Providers to offer connectivity solutions which will cater for all users’ needs.
Through its partnership with R&M, Spring Fibre’s plans are to create a network rising to more than 1 million premises passed over time. Spring Fibre targets areas with poor internet provision and will deliver a major boost to many under-served communities and businesses.
Rosalind Singleton, CEO, Spring Fibre, said:
“We are delighted to commence this partnership with R&M which shares our vision of building first class sustainable networks and long-lasting relationships. FTTP (fibre to the premises) rollouts across the country are still not matching customer demand or covering enough locations. We are confident we can expand and accelerate access in areas that would benefit most and expect our first homes to be live within the next six months, with many more to follow”
R&M was advised by Analysys Mason, CMS and PKF Francis Clark; Spring Fibre was advised by Acuity Advisors and Thrings, and Spring Fibre’s founder shareholders were advised by Gateley.
