Investissement dans la Fibre des Territoires (IFT) announced today that it has definitively finalised its 7-year bank and bond financing for a total amount of €2.150 billion.

IFT has acquired the necessary resources to rapidly co-finance private and public FTTH networks in mainland France.

IFT will contribute significantly and sustainably to the financing of the peak investment that operators and local authorities are bearing in order to deploy the new generation optical local loop.

IFT has secured the support of diversified international banking and institutional lenders. The strong demand from investors – including several leading infrastructure funds – for this transaction confirms the value and relevance of IFT’s business model.

Olivier Raugel, Chairman of IFT: “With IFT, we want to be the leading co-financier of fibre optic networks in less dense areas, which represent 80% of the premises to be connected in mainland France. This financing gives us the means to achieve our ambitions and will enable us to become a long-term partner of infrastructure operators, local authorities and regions. We will invest more than €2 billion to accelerate the rollout of fibre optics in the regions and provide the best possible speeds as quickly as possible.”

BNP Paribas, Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank, Société Générale and Natixis acted as Joint Mandated Lead Arrangers and Bookrunners for the transaction.