KKR has acquired a majority stake in the full fiber hyperopic provider, becoming the latest investment company to focus on UK communications infrastructure.
Founded in 2011, Hyperoptic's Fiber-to-Site (FTTP) network now covers nearly 400,000 homes and businesses in 43 cities. The roadmap for its current expansion will see this footprint quadruple in the next three years.
Financial details were not disclosed, but it was confirmed that General Managers Dana Tobak and Chief Executive Officer Boris Ivanovic would continue to serve.
KKR hyperopeptic
"We are confident that with the support of KKR and its considerable expertise in favor of high-growth businesses, our ambitious infrastructure plans to expand our hyperfast network of two million homes by 2021 and realize five million by 2024," said Tobak.
KKR already has communications joint ventures with Telxius in Spain and Altice in France, while maintaining the German fiber optic company Glasfalser. It seems to have been attracted to a UK market where fiber coverage is only 8%, much less than in other European or other countries.
"Hyperoptic is a market leader and a superior consumer product," said KKR. "The company is well positioned to meet the growing demand for full fiber services in the UK through new investment and national deployment, supporting home development and renovation."
The UK has seen several major acquisitions and investments in recent years. Last year CityFibre was acquired by private equity firms for GBP 538 million, while Hull-based internet provider KCOM was bought by Australia's Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets Fund (Australia). LOOK).
The vast majority of UK broadband is powered by FTTC (Fiber To The Cabinet) technology, but since then government and industry have adopted fiber strategies first. In addition to the Altnet CityFibre, Hyperoptic and Gigaclear deployments, BT Openreach plans to roll out fiber optics in 15 million UK households by the middle of the decade, while Virgin Media and TalkTalk are also being rolled out.