ANZ to fund 'significant portion' of Pacific Fibre
ANZ, Credit Suisse and First NZ Capital to lead fund raisining effort for wannabe Southern Cross Cable competitor; ANZ to provide portion of funding itself.
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Hawke’s Bay
Pacific Fibre, which is seeking to build a fibre optic cable between Sydney, Auckland and LA, has appointed ANZ, plus investiment banks Credit Suisse and First NZ Capital, to lead its $US400 million fund raising effort.
ANZ to provide "significant portion" of finance
ANZ's executive director for institutional relationships, John Vetter said “Our mandate is to raise the debt portion of the $US400 million project on a project finance basis, and as lead arranger we intend to provide a significant portion of the required financing while also arranging for other qualified Australasian and international banks to join in this financing.”
Up to 45% of $400m build to be funded by debt
Pacific Fibre chief executive Mark Rushworth told NBR that the debt portion of the $US400 million project was still being finalised but could be "anything up to 45% of the build cost."
Vendor financing, private equity and anchor customer deals are other possible sources of capital.
Mr Rushworth refused to comment on the portion of the project that would be directly financed by ANZ.
A Pacific Fibre insider offered that "exact funding ratios come out of the fund raising process."
Founded by NBR Rich Listers Sir Stephen Tindall, Rod Drury and Sam Morgan, Pacific Fibre would compete against the Southern Cross Cable Network, 50% owned by Telecom and at this point the only submarine cable running out of New Zealand, plus six cables running out of Australia.
Minor funding rounds, including a recent $4 million private equity placement, have attracted investors including New Zealand Trade & Enterprise, which chipped in $250,000 through its strategic investment fund, and American Peter Thiel, a Forbes list billionaire by dint of his early investments in PayPal and Facebook.
NBR staff
Thu, 28 Apr 2011
Thu, 28 Apr 2011
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ANZ to fund 'significant portion' of Pacific Fibre
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