Network operator CityFibre, which is rolling out a 10Gbps capable Fiber-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP network across the United Kingdom, has provided an update on their ambitions to boost their full fibre coverage by acquiring some of the other operators in the alternative network space.
Last week saw the company reveal that their FTTP network had grown to cover 3.5 million premises (3.2m as Ready for Service by supporting ISPs), which is up by around 90,000 premises in the last month (here). But this is not fast enough to reach their ambition of covering up to 8 million premises (funded by c.£2.4bn in equity and c.£4.9bn debt) – across over 285 cities, towns and villages (c.30% of the UK) – by the end of 2025.
The difficulties have been further underlined by last year’s spate of build suspensions and related job losses (here, here and here), which were understood to have been fuelled by issues like rising build costs (inflation, leases, suppliers etc.) and the difficulty of raising fresh investment in the current climate. Similar challenges have also been hitting many other alternative networks involved in UK fibre build.
On the other hand, CityFibre has made no secret of their desire to boost network coverage through consolidation. Back in July 2023 the operator signalled to ISPreview that they had developed an interest in up to 20 potential altnets (here), but a new article in the FT (paywall) confirms that they’re aiming to make around 5 acquisitions over the next 24 months, although more may follow..
According to the operator’s CEO, Greg Mesch, CityFibre is currently in “exclusive talks” with two other altnets, developing offers for three others and are under non-disclosure agreements with six more. “Investment is drying up, but I think that’s creating the opportunity to consolidate the network,” Mesch said.
The article doesn’t name any potential targets, but in order to achieve the sort of scale they need the operator will most likely be looking toward larger AltNets, at least initially, and probably targetting those that are already feeling the strain. As well as those that have little to no overlap with their own network.
In our view, that means some of the potential targets could be CommunityFibre (large presence in London, where CityFibre is largely absent) and Hyperoptic (strong focus on MDUs, where CityFibre are playing catch-up). Netomnia, Gigaclear, Trooli, Fibrus, toob and others may also be potential early targets, although Gigaclear might have their own acquisitions in mind, toob already has a network partnership with CityFibre and Netomnia seem to be in a stronger position than many AltNets.
However, history does show that negotiating a viable deal for such things can be difficult, particularly if the sellers have an inflated view of their network’s true value (i.e. sometimes it’s better to wait for a business to get into trouble before stepping in with an offer). Not to mention the complex and costly challenge of integrating so many different networks, not all of which will be following the same approach. At the same time, nexfibre (Virgin Media O2) are also pondering further merger and acquisition (M&A) activity in the UK (they gobbled Upp last year), which could create some added competition for CityFibre’s bids.
Quite how all of this pans out will be interesting to see, but CityFibre have already committed to add another 1 million premises to their network coverage during 2024, although this could be achieved from both a mix of their own build activity or M&A. In theory, they could add between 1.5 to 3 million extra premises via M&A alone by the end of 2025.