Ropes & Gray Advised on $5 Billion Financing for Wyre

Ropes & Gray has advised Liberty Global on a €4.35 billion secured debt financing for Wyre, Liberty Global's Belgian network company and a joint venture between its subsidiary Telenet and utility operator Fluvius System Operator. The financing – comprising a €2.7 billion term facility, a €1.2 billion capex facility, a €215 million revolving credit facility and a €235 million debt service reserve facility – fully funds Wyre's fiber network rollout across Flanders.

In a European-first for fiber connectivity, following approval from the Belgian Competition Authority, Wyre and Fiberklaar, Proximus Group's network company, can now begin the rollout of a shared future-proof fiber network across large parts of Flanders. By bringing together the strengths of Telenet Group, Proximus Group and their infrastructure partners, the landmark collaboration will accelerate the delivery of gigabit connectivity to homes and businesses, reduce disruption from duplicate civil works and create a more efficient path to digital infrastructure deployment.

Together, the partners intend to move quickly, building a network capable of delivering speeds up to ten times faster than today's, with the majority to be built by 2029 and achieving full coverage by 2037.

The Ropes & Gray team was led by finance partner Alex Robb, with support from associates Hoey Lee, Cameron Storah, Chad Parkinson, Kwame Adzatia and Edward Olsen, and trainees Ned Robinson and Toby Pitchers.