Fiber Roundup 11-9: XO, Sidera, Global Crossing, TW Telecom

There have been several items over the past day or two from fiber operators worth a quick take:

XO Holdings (news, filings) continued its recent series of expansions with another such effort in Phoenix.  The company has added some 130 miles to its metro network on the east side into Chandler, Gilbert and Mesa offering potential access to some 200 more buildings.  They have also deployed Ethernet over copper more broadly in Phoenix as well.  Hanging overhead of course is XO’s proposed rights offering, as well as its Q3 earnings report which should be out within the week.  Of course, they offered Q3 guidance just a few weeks ago, but for 15-17% EBITDA margins I’ll need to see the real thing.  They are certainly don’t seem worried about spending a little cash though.

Sidera Networks, formerly RCN Metro of course, picked up a new customer.  Intrasphere Technologies will be leveraging the metro and regional operator’s fiber network for dedicated connectivity both for internet access and VoIP.  Intrasphere is a consulting firm that specializes in the life sciences and healthcare, which is a vertical that Sidera has been targeting more of lately.  They recently relocated their headquarters, moving out of New York City and into New Jersey, hence the need for new connectivity.

International network operator glbc plans to access the credit markets.  They hope to sell $150M of senior notes due 2019, which they will use to refinance existing converts coming due next year.  Those converts carry a coupon of 5%, convert at $22.98, and there are about $140M worth of them out there if memory serves.  Seems like a reasonable time to make such a move.  I doubt they’ll get as good a price though, so interest costs will probably rise a bit.

And also on a financial note, TW Telecom (NASDAQ:TWTC, news, filings) filed an 8-K this morning in which it revealed that it is requesting the consent of lenders to extend the maturity on half or more of its $577K term loan from 2013 to 2016, and that they expect a higher interest rate to result.  They will also seek an extension of their undrawn credit facility from 2011 to 2014, as well as some amendments to debt covenants in the next two months.  Looks like a bit of balance sheet cleanup, I’d guess they won’t have trouble making it happen.

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Categories: Financials · Internet Backbones · Metro fiber