Dark Fibre Africa (DFA) has reached a deal with a syndicate of lenders that have agreed to provide R3,5bn in corporate debt facilities to the privately owned fibre telecommunications infrastructure provider.
The funds will be used to replace the company’s project finance funding and invest in new infrastructure in order to meet the growing demand for fibre infrastructure across South Africa, it said in a statement.
“The refinancing consists of R1bn of general banking facilities and revolving credit facilities, together with a series of three-, four-, five- and six-year term loans amounting to R2,2bn provided by a syndicate of lenders,” it said.
The lenders include banks, financial institutions and development funding agencies. They are Absa, the Development Bank of Southern Africa, Rand Merchant Bank, Futuregrowth Asset Management, Investec Asset Management, the KZN Growth Fund, Liberty Group and Stanlib Asset Management.
“DFA, which was established in 2007, has grown considerably over the years and has now outgrown its project finance facilities,” said chief financial officer Thinus Mulder.
“The refinancing will allow DFA to achieve its main goals of diversifying our providers of debt funding, allow for greater financial flexibility and substantially reduce our financing costs,” he said.
DFA builds and owns “carrier-neutral dark fibre infrastructure for the transmission of primarily metro telecommunications traffic”.
It leases transmission and backbone fibre infrastructure to telecoms operators, Internet service providers, media companies, tertiary education institutions and government agencies. — © 2014 NewsCentral Media
