Macquarie Asset Management has made a €125m debt investment in Irish broadband network operator SIRO.
The manager said the loan represented the largest institutional component of a €620m debt financing package arranged by NatWest, which will provide SIRO with the “certainty and flexibility it needs as it delivers on its rollout plan”.
SIRO has a fibre-to-the-home network passing approximately 410,000 homes and businesses in Ireland. The company plans to expand its wholesale-only fibre network to reach approximately 770,000 premises across more than 150 regional towns and cities by 2026.
Tom van Rijsewijk, managing director at Macquarie Asset Management, said: “The pandemic has brought into sharp focus the urgent need that exists to transform our telecommunications infrastructure to facilitate the increasing digitisation of our economy and society.
”We are proud to be supporting SIRO as it invests to develop and expand its fibre-to-the-home network, enabling hundreds of thousands more homes and businesses across Ireland to access the benefits of ultrafast broadband.”
John Keaney, CEO of SIRO, said: “Our fibre broadband network is currently available to 410,000 homes and businesses across Ireland. As part of this next phase, we will increase our network reach by over 70%.
”This will enable many more Irish homes and businesses to access high-quality, high-speed broadband to support how they now live and work.”
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