InfraBridge and the Irish Infrastructure Fund (IIF) has agreed to the sale of Speed Fibre Group to Cordiant Digital Infrastructure Limited (LSE: CORD) for a total enterprise value of €190.5 million. The transaction is expected to complete during 2023, subject to regulatory approvals in Ireland and the United Kingdom.

Speed Fibre Group is Ireland’s leading open access fibre infrastructure provider, operating 5,400 kilometres of fibre network.  Group Companies include: Enet, manager of Ireland’s 88 metropolitan area networks (MANs) and owner of the T5 ring around Dublin which connects many of the country’s biggest data centres, and Magnet+ which provides connectivity services for Irish businesses and some of the world’s largest technology companies.

Cordiant Digital Infrastructure primarily invests in the core infrastructure of the digital economy – data centres, fibre optic networks and telecommunication and broadcast towers in Europe and North America.

The sale completes the disposal by InfraBridge of the Irish Infrastructure Fund’s equity portfolio of investments including:

• Valley Healthcare (Ireland’s largest primary care centre operator and developer)
• Towercom (Ireland’s largest independent telecommunications tower company)
• Cyclone Wind Farms
• Convention Centre Dublin (CCD) and
• Speed Fibre Group.

The IIF was dedicated to investing solely in Irish infrastructure businesses and deployed more than €465m into Ireland.

Philip Doyle, Principal & Fund Manager, InfraBridge said;  “This transaction represents the final sale of the asset realisation strategy agreed with the IIF investors. The IIF team will miss working with such great Irish businesses and their management teams but we are incredibly proud and happy to have delivered a very positive realised return for our investors.”

“We are delighted to have sold the Speed Fibre Group to Cordiant, a specialist operator of digital infrastructure who will be able to support further investment in Ireland’s fibre and connectively network”.

Patrick Burke, CEO, Irish Life Investment Managers (ILIM) said: “Irish Life is delighted with the performance of the Irish Infrastructure Fund which under the management of InfraBridge and ILIM has delivered for our investors while supporting infrastructure development in Ireland. We wish the Speed Fibre Group every success in the future.”

InfraBridge was advised by: Dentons Ireland (Legal), Jefferies and IBI (Financial Advisors), Altman Solon (Commercial), and KPMG (Tax).