Projects

NextGenAccess

Fibre

Digital

NextGenAccess (‘NGA’) was a developer of ultrafast wholesale and custom fibre broadband infrastructure in England and Wales.

Sector

Fibre

Digital

Location

Various Sites, UK

Status

Divested

Equity ownership

100% Divested in 09/2022

Financial close

October 2018

Term length

4 years

About

At the time of investment, NGA was a carrier neutral, fibre infrastructure managed service provider that specialised in custom, scalable core and access dark fire network connectivity solutions.

Fibre Network Length

0 km

(2022)

NGA successfully built an independent network across the UK, with over 100 Points of Presence in ten different local authority areas. The National Digital Infrastructure Fund (‘NDIF’) was the largest shareholder in NGA and provided capital facilities to support its growth. NDIF’s funding helped finance expansion of this network, which extended over 260km at the point of NDIF’s divestment to ITS Technology Group.

No. of Points of Presence

0 +

NGA was licenced under Duct and Pole Access (‘DPA’) / Physical Infrastructure Access (‘PIA’), which meant they can utilise existing Openreach infrastructure to run their own fibre, enabling highly competitive network construction costs and fast deployment times. NGA secured several significant sales and partnerships, including with NGD Europe, a hyperscale data centre operator in Newport, to create a new 80km fibre link across the Severn Bridge to Bristol, bringing enhanced connectivity to thousands of businesses along the route.

Why we invested

Length of contract to enterprise and carrier clients

5– 0 years

Robust market fundamentals: case underpinned by upsurge in demand for wholesale B2B, driven by powerful macro trends, including:
- Data center interconnectivity
- Dark fibre for 4G / 5G small cell densification
- Fibre backhaul for FTTP
Long term contracts: 5-15 year lease contracts of strategic dark fibre routes to enterprise and carrier clients
Strong client underpinning: Anchor contract model de-risks build by allowing capex to be underpinned, with spare fibre capacity laid and monetized by the company
Shift towards predictable revenues: Introduction of disruptive dark-fibre offering as part of strategic pivot towards recurring revenue position
Unique inhouse knowhow: Specialist expertise amongst management team to deploy fibre through Openreach’s infrastructure, leading to faster and cheaper fibre deployment

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted by UN Member States in 2015

SDGs supported:

SDG contribution

Outcomes

Leadership: Placed high calibre leaders into key non-executive roles (NED, Chairman) with aligned incentives
Strategy: Leveraged Amber’s industry expertise and relationships to develop new propositions and pivot the business’ strategy to increase recurring revenue share
Reporting: Implemented consistent processes to deliver insight-driven financial and operational reporting
Divestment: Successfully fully divested NDIF stake in NGA, with the sale price representing a forecast 21% holding period IRR and in excess of a 1.9x multiple on the capital invested

NextGenAccess

About

Why we invested

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Outcomes

Airband

Community Fibre

toob