Canadian rural broadband provider Xplornet Communications has secured C$125m through a private funding round from its existing investors, including private equity firms Sandler Capital Management, Catalyst Investors and Werklund Capital…
Canadian rural broadband provider Xplornet Communications has secured C$125m through a private funding round from its existing investors, including private equity firms Sandler Capital Management, Catalyst Investors and Werklund Capital Corporation.
Proceeds from the financing, which was split between equity and debt, will be used to accelerate the deployment of the company’s national 4G network as well as expand its overall network capacity.
The fundraising comes just over a year after Xplornet raised C$230m in a private financing. Proceeds from that transaction were used to refinance existing debt and to fund the further roll out of the 4G network, which was first activated in late March 2011.
Since its inception in late 2004, Xplornet has raised more that C$450m in private funding.
Commenting on this latest financing, John Maduri, Xplornet’s chief executive said: “Xplornet is solving the broadband access divide in rural Canada, and doing so largely with private capital. This new C$125m in financing, following on the C$230m we raised last year, will help ensure that Xplornet has the resources necessary to continue our aggressive growth, and position us for continued success as one of Canada’s leading telecommunications companies.”
In mid-February 2012, Xplornet launched the satellite portion of its rural broadband network through the ViaSat-1 satellite. The Ka-band spacecraft was launched in October 2011 and Xplornet controls the entire Canadian capacity of it having signed a C$262m leasing agreement with ViaSat-1’s manufacturer Space Systems Loral in January 2010.
Xplornet also has a leasing contract with Hughes Network Systems worth more than US$100m under which the former is committed to purchasing 100% of the Canadian capacity, approximately 14 Gbps, on Echostar-17. The satellite, which was previously known as Jupiter, is due to be launched in this summer.
Xplornet, which was formerly called Barrett Xplore, first launched satellite broadband services in December 2004 via US-based Tachyon Networks. It then signed a multi-year distribution contract with Telesat in March 2005 to provide services via the satellite operator’s Anik F2 satellite.
