A&O Shearman advises creditors to XpFibre EUR5.8 billon landmark debt refinancing

XpFibre, owned by Altice, OMERS, Allianz and AXA IM Alts, is the largest independent Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) operator in France.

The financing has been documented under a new common term secured debt platform that includes bank facilities, institutional private placement notes across a range of tenors, a capex facility to support the end of the roll-out, and a bridge-to-private placement. 

XpFibre has successfully priced and signed an inaugural EUR1.2bn U.S. and European private placement which will substantially refinance the bridge. The term bank debt and private placement notes are expected to be rated investment grade by each of S&P and DBRS upon the issue of the private placement notes later in November. 

The A&O Shearman team was led by energy, natural resources and infrastructure (ENRI) partners Ed Moser, Tim Conduit (both London) and Driss Bererhi (Paris) together with senior associates Sarah Mulcahy (London) and Dorian Le (Paris) and associates Sam Davidson, Madeleine Mitchell (both London), Abdullah Konaté and Wendy Au (both Paris). Specialist advice was provided by Parya Badie, Tom Rawlinson and Charlotte Boyd (derivatives), Mathieu Vignon and Virginie Chatté (tax) and Hector Arroyo, Hicham Kaddaha and Antoine Santoni (structuring).