On Tuesday, the U.K.’s largest alternative provider of wholesale telecom fiber infrastructure, CityFibre, announced a major expansion of its partnership with U.S. engineering, construction and infrastructure services giant Bechtel, as it speeds its full fiber infrastructure rollout to target one-third of the U.K. telecom market by 2025.
Earlier this month, London-based CityFibre, which is owned by Antin Infrastructure Partners, Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Abu Dhabi-based sovereign wealth fund Mubadala Investment Company and foundation-owned investment group Interogo Holding, announced a capital raise of GBP 1.13 billion (about $1.5 billion), marking the largest-ever such fundraising for a full fiber deployment in the U.K.
Mubadala’s investment into CityFibre also marked the first capital deployed under a new infrastructure vertical of the United Arab Emirates, the so-called United Kingdom Sovereign Investment Partnership. The partnership, announced in March of this year, and which Mubadala oversees for the UAE and the Office for Investment for the UK, has been described as a platform for a “future-focused investment relationship” between the two nations, targeting priority sectors such as energy transition and infrastructure.
According to the companies, the new agreement formalizes a five-year extension to the parties’ existing partnership, ensuring that the CityFibre U.K. rollout continues to scale at pace and with high-quality network construction, drawing upon Bechtel’s track record of expertise with “mega projects,” including project controls, construction management, contracts management, and environment, safety and health. Bechtel will focus its leadership and construction management efforts in CityFibre’s north and southeast regions, areas with the greatest density of parallel builds. Bechtel will also support CityFibre’s potential participation in Building Digital UK’s ‘Project Gigabit‘ program to bring full fiber access to rural areas across the UK.
By the end of 2022, CityFibre expects to have more than 150 parallel full city, town and village builds underway. By the end of 2025, the company says the rollout will reach approximately 285 locations and address up to 8 million homes.
“It’s a pleasure to be extending our alliance with Bechtel after a hugely successful year as partners,” Greg Mesch, CEO at CityFibre said. “Over the last twelve months, they have worked in lockstep with our teams to deliver an extraordinary acceleration of our rollout. This pace will only increase as we commence new projects and maximize the productivity of each build. We’re delighted that Bechtel, with their unparalleled experience of complex, scaled construction projects, will be working alongside us in the years ahead as we continue to build the U.K.’s finest Full Fiber infrastructure platform.”
“We’re really proud of what we have achieved with CityFibre in only a year,” John Williams, Bechtel’s UK & Ireland Infrastructure Managing Director said. “This new alliance will deepen our partnership, help sustain CityFibre’s incredible growth trajectory, and help future-proof the nation’s digital infrastructure for communities across the UK.”
