Ashurst advises lenders on re-financing of fibre roll-out by Northern Fiber Holding

Ashurst advised a consortium of banks comprising NORD/LB, NORD/LB London Branch, Raiffeisenbank International, SEB Frankfurt Branch, Kommunalkredit Austria and KfW on the (re)financing for the expansion of the fibre network of Northern Fiber Holding GmbH, including its subsidiaries LüneCom and sewikom in particular.

The financing involves an investment loan for digital infrastructure from KfW and will be used for the planned fibre expansion in Northern Germany. LüneCom and sewikom operate primarily in the German Federal States of Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein and North Rhine-Westphalia.

Northern Fiber Holding is part of the infrastructure portfolio of UBS Asset Management and comprises the fibre companies Lünecom Kommunikationslösungen GmbH (Lüneburg) and sewikom GmbH (Beverungen) as well as the B2B telecommunications provider terralink networks GmbH from Hamburg (all Germany).

The Ashurst team was led by partner Derk Opitz. He was assisted by counsel Gabrielle Metherall, associates Patrick Rauch and Tobias Bürk, transaction counsel Kerstin Hartmann as well as transaction lawyer Jeanine Boch-Kraul (all Global Loans). Advice on tax law aspects was provided by counsel Dr Susanne Knoch.

Ashurst's German banking and finance practice advises both banks and alternative lenders, private equity investors and companies on domestic and cross-border acquisition, real estate, asset and infrastructure / project finance as well as on financial restructuring and corporate lending.