On Tuesday, Ohio-based broadband infrastructure company Horizon announced that it has bought the commercial fiber business of Consolidated Cooperative, the consumer-owned utility company that serves around 18,000 customers with electric, gas and fiber internet services. The deal will add 450 miles of fiber to Horizon’s existing, 5,500-mile Columbia-based network, broadening its Midwest infrastructure footprint into Delaware, Marion and Richland counties. The deal affects only Consolidated Cooperative’s commercial fiber business; Consolidated will retain ownership of its residential fiber internet services.
“Horizon remains committed to expanding its network capabilities and geographic reach in order to continue meeting the evolving communications and connectivity needs of businesses and communities throughout the Midwest,” Horizon CEO James Capuano said upon announcing the deal on Tuesday. “Consolidated’s proven ability to deliver ultra-high-speed broadband internet and data services with high levels of performance, availability, flexibility and redundancy affirms that these infrastructure assets will deliver exactly the next-gen capabilities organizations are looking for. We’re excited to supplement our existing capabilities and make this mutually beneficial step toward a more connected future.”
“The enterprise fiber business has exceeded our goals and expectations for it, which were primarily to improve our electric operations, set us up to offer broadband internet service in the future, and help to pay for all that by selling capacity to third parties,” said Consolidated Cooperative President and CEO Phil Caskey. “At this juncture, we determined that the best path forward for Consolidated, our members, and our communities is to focus on growing our electric, gas, and residential fiber internet services. Selling our commercial fiber business to Horizon will allow us to do that, and we know Horizon will continue to provide outstanding service to commercial organizations in our region.”
The deal to buy Consolidated’s enterprise fiber assets comes one week after Horizon agreed to sell a “significant ownership stake” in itself to Chicago-headquartered, listed global alternative asset manager GCM Grosvenor. GCM Grosvenor made the investment through its Labor Impact Strategy, joining an existing investor group led by leading Canadian private equity firm Novacap TMT, which has been a Horizon investor since 2018.
Upon announcing last week’s, GCM Grosvenor’s investment team lauded Horizon as a “growing and well-positioned communications infrastructure provider” with “significant competitive advantage in its region from both a cost and time-to-market perspective.”
In recent months, Horizon has launched a number of Midwest regional Fiber to the Home (FTTH) initiatives, having completed an initial greenfield fiber build in Circleville, Ohio, with six additional builds currently underway.
