Private investment firm KKR has acquired a majority stake in Hyperoptic Ltd, the UK’s largest residential gigabit broadband provider, from funds managed by Newlight Partners (Newlight) and Mubadala Investment Company.
Financial details of the transaction have not been disclosed.
Hyperoptic will continue to be led by Chief Executive Officer Dana Tobak, CBE and Executive Chairman Boris Ivanovic. Founded in 2011, Hyperoptic benefits from a full fibre network covering 43 towns and cities across the UK, with gigabit broadband services passing almost 400,000 homes and businesses.
Tobak says: “We are incredibly grateful to Newlight and Mubadala for their unwavering support and significant contributions to the success of Hyperoptic. Currently, only 8 per cent of the UK has access to full fibre and less than half of that to symmetrical gigabit services.
“We are confident that with the support of KKR and their significant expertise enabling high-growth businesses, our ambitious infrastructure plans to build our hyperfast network out to two million homes by 2021 and five million by 2024 will be realised.”
Vincent Policard, Member, and Cristina Gonzalez, Director in European Infrastructure at KKR, says: “Hyperoptic has a market-leading position and superior consumer product. The business is strongly positioned to meet the growing demand for full-fibre services in the UK through further investment and national roll-out, supporting housing development and renovation. Our investment in Hyperoptic builds on KKR’s strong track record in telecommunications infrastructure in Europe, investing in and deploying next-generation digital connectivity.”
David Wassong and Ravi Yadav, co-Managing Partners at Newlight, says: “We are extremely proud to have partnered with the Hyperoptic team during its formative years to build the leading fibre broadband provided in the UK. The roll out of its hyperfast network is poised to expand rapidly in the next few years and we will continue to cheer them on from the sidelines.”
“Mubadala is proud to have been part of the Hyperoptic journey. Our ICT sector strategy is focused on investments in high growth companies with excellent management, and Hyperoptic is a prime example of that,” says Mounir Barakat, Executive Director of ICT, Mubadala.
KKR’s investment builds on the firm’s track record as an owner and operator of European telecommunications infrastructure, including major joint ventures with Telxius and Altice in Spain and France respectively focused on mobile connectivity and towers, along with its ownership of Deutsche Glasfaser, a leading German fibre broadband provider. The investment in Hyperoptic is being made through KKR’s Global Infrastructure Investors Fund III.
LionTree Advisors acted as the exclusive financial advisor to Hyperoptic and the selling shareholders in connection with the transaction.
