US-based Seaborn Networks plans to invest US$400m in a subsea cable that will connect New York with Sao Paulo and hopes to wrap up project financing in Q2. The project financing will come through debt and equity, with Seaborn exploring the option of a…
US-based Seaborn Networks plans to invest US$400m in a subsea cable that will connect New York with Sao Paulo and hopes to wrap up project financing in Q2.
The project financing will come through debt and equity, with Seaborn exploring the option of a senior debt facility guaranteed by export credit agency Coface, Seaborn CEO Larry Schwartz told TelecomFinance.
The company is also in discussions with development banks that are taking a “strong interest” in the 10,400km cable, Schwartz said.
Seaborn has already completed two funding rounds and expects full project financing for the Seabras-1 system to close in Q2.
“We are very comfortable in terms of funding to date and have more than adequate development capital to get us to the fully-funded project stage,” Schwartz said.
Jefferies is acting as financial advisor to Seaborn while Portland Advisers has been mandated to instruct on debt.
Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCoy is the project counsel, Wiltshire & Grannis is US regulatory counsel, Choate Hall & Stewart is US corporate counsel, while Barbosa, Mussnich e Aragao Advogados is Brazil counsel.
Seaborn signed a turn-key contract with Alcatel-Lucent to develop the system in October.
The cable is expected to be ready for service in the first quarter of 2015 and will be the first direct route between Sao Paulo and the US, offering speeds 6 milliseconds faster than currently available.
The 100 gigabit per second system will also have a branch that leads to Fortaleza in the northeast of Brazil.
