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CMS advises Foresight on Connect Fibre investment

15 February 2022

International law firm CMS has advised Foresight Group LLP (“Foresight”), a leading listed infrastructure and SME investment manager, on its investment into Connect Fibre, a community minded, full fibre network provider based in Cambridgeshire. 

The investment is intended to accelerate the installation of a full fibre network across the East of England, bringing superior digital connectivity to households and businesses across the region. 

It follows a UK report published by Ofcom revealing that in 2021, only 28% of UK premises had access to full fibre broadband. The UK Government has committed to bring gigabit-capable broadband to at least 85% of UK premises by the end of 2025.

Foresight has an established track record across sustainable infrastructure, real assets and SME investing, delivering financial returns while making a positive contribution to the regions in which it operates.  With a regional office and investment team located in the heart of Cambridge, since 2019, Foresight has partnered with eight businesses based in the East of England.

This is the second fibre investment that the CMS has supported Foresight on, the first being its investment into Lightning Fibre, which helped to accelerate the rollout of a hyperfast full fibre network across East Sussex.

Katie Nagy de Nagybaczon, Corporate Partner at CMS, who led on the transaction, comments: “We are delighted to have supported Foresight on another significant fibre investment as they continue to drive forward their regional strategy. Digital connectivity continues to play a critical role in our modern lifestyles, and this exciting partnership will ensure that those in East England have access to reliable, high-speed fibre infrastructure.”

Anouska Morjaria, Investment Manager at Foresight, comments: “We would like to thank CMS for their invaluable support. They delivered an exceptional service, demonstrating their deep sector expertise and commercial acumen at every stage of the transaction. We are looking forward to supporting Connect Fibre in its mission to revolutionise full fibre broadband connectivity across the UK.”

The CMS team advising on Foresight’s investment was led by Katie Nagy de Nagybaczon, with support from Philip Walton and Rashmi Varkey (Corporate); Robert Sartor (Tax); Anne Chitan and Nicole Morris (Banking); Catherine Merry and Stacey Callaghan (Employee Incentives); and Rebecca Hayes (Employment).

CMS continues to advise on some of the largest fibre network deals across the UK. Most recently, the team has supported CityFibre on its major expansion of its strategic partnership with Vodafone, establishing Vodafone as CityFibre’s anchor customer for its Full Fibre digital infrastructure roll-out to up to eight million homes across the UK, as part of CityFibre’s £4b investment programme. Other recent deals include advising CityFibre’s on its £200m acquisition of FibreNation from TalkTalk Group, increasing CityFibre’s rollout target from five million to eight million premises and establishing CityFibre as the UK’s third national digital infrastructure platform, as well as advising on Hyperoptic’s sale to KKR, fuelling Hyperoptic’s ambition to reach five million homes and businesses by 2024.