Fibercorp wins E10 million

Brussels-based telecom infrastructure company, Fibercorp has raised EURO10.62 million from current investors, ABN AMRO Ventures, GE Capital Telecom, PAI LBO Fund and Paribas Deelnemingen. Demot bvba, the private investment vehicle of Armand Bogaarts chairman and CEO of Fibercorp also provided funding. The company received EURO50 million from the same group of investors at the beginning of 2000.

This round of finance will be used to expand the company’s fibre network in the Netherlands and Belgium. The 1150km network is nearly complete in Amsterdam, Brussels and Dusseldorf. This phase of Fibercorp’s business plan is now fully funded. Bogaarts said:

“This is a major achievement given the difficult market for young telecom infrastructure companies. By increasing their investment in Fibercorp, our investors have demonstrated their confidence in the company’s strategy and business model.”

Fibercorp provides, develops and manages fibre networks. The funding will mainly be used on the connectivity side of the business which operates under the name Eurofiber and is deploying regional dark fibre networks (unused fibre-optic cable) to meet the requirements of local, long distance and pan-European carriers, ISPs and ASPs. Fibercorp’s subsidiaries Nettrium and T-Plan offer asset management services aimed at improving the efficiency of existing networks. They provide maintenance and engineering services to manage and implement large-scale telecom infrastructure projects. The company’s customers include BabyXL, BT, Cable & Wireless, Siris, Teleglobe and Telia.

The company has plans to extend its coverage to include Frankfurt and possibly France and Spain. To carry out these plans Fibercorp needs to raise a further VC round of EURO35 million to EURO40 million in early 2002. The company expects to be EBITDA positive by the final quarter of this year.

Founded as LCL Belgium in 1988 Fibercorp was created in its current form last year. It now combines T-Plan, LCL Network Services and Colt LCL.