The metro fiber builder and operator FiberLight has secured some new long term financing. The move will give the company the resources with which to continue its building campaign, and may quiet a few of the more persistent consolidation rumors out there – or perhaps start a few new ones.
FiberLight has been building out aggressively out in Texas over the past year or two, working on a project that will add 8,000 route miles and bring them to 11,000 regional and metro route miles in the state overall. In the Texas Triangle region they’ve also been rolling out a 100G longhaul network to go with it.
As for that funding, they have now increased their senior secured debt facility by $97.2M. CoBank led the syndicated financing, with several farm credit banks pitching in. The funds will go toward refinancing existing debt, fulfilling customer contracts, and funding future success-based capex.
FiberLight’s main backers at Thermo have long been rumored to be ready to cash in, but nothing ever came of it. The additional funding suggests they are in fact ready to stay the course, and if their leverage ratio is as low as they suggest perhaps FiberLight might themselves become buyers. Probably not though, it’s always been about the organic growth opportunity for them.
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Categories: Financials · Metro fiber
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Rob – FiberLight will have 8,000 new route miles in the state of Texas when this project is complete for a total of over 11,000 route miles in the entire state. I just wanted to provide that update. Thanks
I have corrected the article accordingly, thanks!