[AusNOG] News: Vocus completes its master plan with A$860m Nextgen Networks buy

[Laurens Lafebre]

You said at the last Commsday that the Canadians will want to offload Telco
without the Datacentres. Good call.

LL

On Wed, Jun 29, 2016 at 10:52 AM, Skeeve Stevens <
skeeve+ausnog at eintellegonetworks.com
<https://mail.google.com/mail/?view=cm&fs=1&tf=1&to=skeeve+ausnog@eintellegonetworks.com>
> wrote:

> Here we go!!!
>
> As predicted :-)
>
> ----
>
> *Vocus completes its master plan **with A$860m Nextgen Networks buy*
>
>
> Vocus has entered a binding agreement to acquire 100% of Nextgen Networks,
> as well as the Australia Singapore Cable and North West Cable System
> projects, from the Nextgen Group for A$807 million up front plus a deferred
> consideration of up to A$54 million.
>
>
> While the move confirms recent reports noted in today's CommsDay, the firm
> has been actively working on the deal since late last year. And Vocus
> executive director James Spenceley told CommsDay that the buy was the final
> key step in an overarching acquisition strategy that dates right back to
> Vocus' 2010 listing on the Australian Securities Exchange.
>
>
> "We've been working on this since December, but we've... been looking at
> it pre-Amcom. When we listed Vocus, the idea was really to go into dark
> fibre, so we did that; then to expand geographically with Amcom and FX
> Networks, then move into consumer with M2. But Nextgen was always on that
> priority list; we've just got the size and scale now to be able to do that,
> and the balance sheet to do it," he said. "It's completing the master plan.
> We've got all the infrastructure, we've got the base to work from in all
> parts of the business now."
>
>
> Giving Vocus ownership of Nextgen's extensive intercapital fibre network
> and its ongoing submarine cable projects, excluding only its datacentre
> assets, the acquisition will further entrench Vocus as a key player amongst
> Australia's 'big four' fixed-line operators alongside Telstra, Optus and
> TPG.
>
>
> Indeed, Spenceley said that Nextgen's 17,000km national backhaul networks
> would give Vocus a critical advantage in what has become a key field of
> fixed-line differentiation: access to NBN points of interconnect. A
> post-Nextgen Vocus would be able to reach 112 of the 121 POIs nationally,
> given A$11.5 million of additional capex, along with fibre access to 70
> datacentres and 1,100 buildings. "It should give us the second or third
> most POIs connected of the big four," said the executive director.
>
>
> Vocus CEO Geoff Horth similarly described the move as providing the
> "missing piece" in the firm's infrastructure network, allowing it to
> connect its extensive metropolitan infrastructure to Nextgen's intercapital
> fibre and "thereby connecting mainland capital cities to regional and
> remote areas on one owned network."
>
>
> Vocus will fund its latest acquisition through a fully underwritten equity
> capital raising comprising a pro-rata A$452 million 1-for-8.90 accelerated,
> renounceable entitlement offer with retail rights trading, plus an
> institutional placement of up to around 26.5 million shares to raise an
> extra A$200 million. It will fund the balance via existing committed debt
> facilities.
>
>
> The deal is expected to complete in around three months, subject to
> clearance from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.
> ----
>
> ...Skeeve
>
> *Skeeve Stevens - Founder & The Architect* - eintellego Networks Pty Ltd
> Email: skeeve at eintellegonetworks.com
> <https://mail.google.com/mail/?view=cm&fs=1&tf=1&to=skeeve@eintellegonetworks.com> ;
> Web: eintellegonetworks.com
>
> Cell +61 (0)414 753 383 ; Skype: skeeve ; LinkedIn: /in/skeeve
> <http://linkedin.com/in/skeeve> ; Expert360: Profile
> <https://expert360.com/profile/d54a9> ; Keybase: https://keybase.io/skeeve
>
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-- 

LL

- Si vis pacem para bellum
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