A refinancing deal to inject almost £500m into CityFibre by shareholders is being negotiated by investors to provide fresh equity funds that would be partly used to finance further altnet takeovers.
According to a story on the Sky News site, investors including the Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Mubadala are in talks over the deal which could be finalised in the coming weeks, that would be part of wider financial boosts which would include a new debt-raise.
A syndicate of CityFibre's lenders, said to be led by NatWest Group, this week appointed advisers from Lazard to assist them during talks with the company.
CityFibre now has more than 500,000 live broadband customers, and the company's shareholders also include West Street Infrastructure Partners, a fund managed by Goldman Sachs; Antin Infrastructure Partners; and Interogo Holding.
The company expects to use the new funds to launch further takeovers of smaller altnets, having bought Lit Fibre nearly a year ago.