Helping directors online for over 23 years.
13 September 2023
It has been heard that Broadway Partners may be acquired soon, by a consortium comprising Tiger Infrastructure Partners and Macquarie. If completed, it would be the first co-investment in a British altnet provider undertaken by Macquarie and Tiger.
Macquarie, which has ploughed billions of pounds into UK airports, energy transmission and other infrastructure assets, already owns a stake in Voneus, a specialist in fixed wireless access technology.
Tiger is a backer of Rural Broadband Solutions Holdings, which operates under the brand SWS Broadband.
The acquisition is likely to come in form of a takeover by Voneus. It is expected that the 40 remaining jobs at Broadway will be saved.
8 June 2023
Broadway Partners has fallen into administration.
A statement from Teneo said the joint administrators will continue to trade the business and keep customers online while a buyer is sought. The statement also detailed that there is necessary funding in place to guarantee service to the existing customer base, connect new customers to the existing network coverage and quality assurance. Employees of the firm have been informed and a redundancy programme has began.
31 May 2023
Fibre broadband infrastructure provider, Broadway Partners, has called in administrators following a hit to its financial state from soaring costs and rising interest rates. This paints a gloomy picture and thus a catalyst for the industry, with many other fibre infrastructure players expected to file for insolvency in the coming months.
The rural network builder in question, which launched in 2016, had a target of connecting 250,000 homes and businesses by 2025, this now seeming doubtful.
Benji Dymant and Daniel Smith of Teneo Financial Advisory are the appointed administrators for Broadway. Though adequate funding is believed to remain through the administration process and finding a potential buyer, this initial collapse leaves more than 130 jobs at risk.
Two years prior to this event, a funding package was granted for Broadway from Downing LLP which involved £145m in committment to the altnet. The mission of Broadway was to “deliver affordable, high-speed broadband services to the more remote regions of the UK, particularly Wales and Scotland where there is a notable digital divide in countryside locations”.
The fibre network builder market is dominated by BT’s Openreach divison but other players include CityFibre Holdings, Trooli and Virgin Media 02. Pressure for consolidation has grown as costs have risen and supply chain and labour issues have interrupted previously viable paths to profitability.