The EQT Infrastructure III fund (EQT Infrastructure) has completed its majority stake investment in Spirit Communications. With the transaction complete, Spirit will be combined with Lumos, which was acquired in November 2017.
The combination of Spirit and Lumos creates a super-regional fibre network stretching from Pittsburgh to Atlanta, with the vast majority of revenue and fibre network concentrated in the high-growth markets of Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina. Together, Spirit and Lumos will operate a network of approximately 21,000 fibre route miles and well over one million total fibre strand miles. The combined business will have over 9,000 on-net locations, comprised of approximately 4,500 on-net enterprise locations and more than 4,500 unique contracted fibre to the cell (FTTC) locations.
Jan Vesely, Partner at EQT Partners and Investment Advisor to EQT Infrastructure, says: “The combination of Spirit and Lumos has strong industrial logic and immediately creates a leading fibre bandwidth platform in the United States. Both companies share many of the same attributes that EQT seeks in its infrastructure investments. We are very much looking forward to supporting the combined business in its ambitious growth plans and working alongside Spirit’s Member Companies.”
Timothy G Biltz, President and CEO of Lumos, will serve as the CEO of the combined company. Robert Keane, President and CEO of Spirit prior to the combination, and Brian Singleton, CEO of TruVista and Chairman of the Spirit Board of Directors prior to the combination, will serve on the combined company’s Board of Directors.
“Spirit and Lumos have similar operating strategies, our fibre footprint is contiguous with very little overlap and we share the same tireless focus on providing an excellent customer experience,” says Biltz. “Quite simply, we belong together. We are excited that EQT had the vision to execute on its plan to create a platform that is, based on a number of metrics, the largest independent fibre bandwidth company in the US.”
Robert Keane, former CEO of Spirit, says: “In an industry where most combinations are focused on eliminating cost benefits, this business combination is born out of expectations for revenue growth. We now have twice the footprint to reach more of our customers’ locations, and we expect to utilise both companies’ product portfolios to cross-sell these services across the expansive combined enterprise base.”
“I look forward to working closely with Bob Keane and Brian Singleton, who will both play an important role on our Board of Directors alongside the existing board members,” adds Doug Gilstrap, Chairman of the Board of the combined entity. “Collectively, we will strive to maintain our focus on excellent customer experience by increasing our offerings of products and services while continuing the investments required to build a fibre network with world-class reliability and performance.”
Biltz says: “I would like to conclude with a very special thank you to the approximately 900 combined employees from Lumos and Spirit for their ingenuity, sacrifice and devotion to solving our customers’ problems and building a world-class fibre network with world-class performance and metrics. The best is yet to come.”
