Drake Star Partners Advises Fixed Wireless Broadband Provider Imagine On Its Eur 120M Investment From Brookfield

Imagine Communications Group is a leading Irish provider of LTE Fixed Wireless communications using the new 5G spectrum to provide high-speed broadband to business and residential customers in Ireland

LONDON | May 14, 2018 – Imagine Communications Group announced that it has agreed to receive €120 million of funding from funds managed by Brookfield, who will acquire a 50.1% indirect controlling interest in the company in partnership with its founders. Imagine is an industry leader in the use of advanced fixed wireless infrastructure to deliver high-speed broadband services in Ireland. Drake Star Partners acted as financial advisor to Imagine in this transaction.

Brookfield is a leading global investor and operator of real assets with approximately $285 billion of assets under management.

Thanks to this investment, the underserved regional and rural areas of Ireland will be the first market in Europe to benefit from Imagine’s rollout of its advanced 5G capable fixed wireless infrastructure. Designed and deployed for fixed services only, Imagine uses its 5G wireless spectrum and infrastructure to provide a secure, high-speed wireless connection between premises and base stations connected to the national fibre network. Imagine’s fixed wireless rollout provides a last mile solution to the challenges in providing high-speed broadband services to users, particularly in less densely populated areas where it has been commercially challenging to do so via fibre to the home (“FTTH”).

“With the network already live and delivering high-speed broadband services to 20k existing customers in rural areas, fully funded we will now commence the full commercial rollout of the network and the availability of next generation high-speed broadband services of 150Mbps to over 300 areas and 1.4 million premises within 2 years, with further investment in additional sites to meet customer demand”. said Sean Bolger, Founder and Executive Chairman of Imagine. “This represents a significant commercial investment in essential infrastructure in Ireland to finally deliver the long-awaited benefit of high-speed broadband service, particularly to users and communities in the underserved rural and regional areas.”

Mr Bolger continued: “For Imagine it was important to have an investor and partner who understood the significance and scale of the opportunity. As a leading global investor and operator of real assets and with its understanding of essential infrastructure, experience in scaling businesses and global reach, Brookfield is the right partner.”

Commenting on the investment by Brookfield, Jack Dessay Partner at Drake Star said: “We are proud to have facilitated the financing of one of Europe’s first 5G capable, fixed wireless infrastructure rollouts. With this major investment, Imagine can now accelerate the rollout of its fixed wireless network across Ireland. This will provide next generation high-speed broadband to Irish populations which previously did not have access to such technology. We are honoured to have played our role in this ground-breaking transaction, ensuring that Imagine can accelerate its strategy. With the release of 5G spectrum, we believe fixed wireless broadband technology will become an increasingly important platform for the delivery of high-speed broadband and therefore a core component of digital infrastructure across the world.  As such, Drake Star Partners is well positioned to support companies and investors operating in these technologies.”

The transaction is subject to certain conditions including competition and regulatory approval and is expected to complete in the third quarter of 2018.

About Imagine Communications Group

Headquartered in Sandyford in Dublin, since 1993 Imagine Communications Group and its associated businesses has been an innovator and strategic investor in the Irish and European fixed, wireless and mobile telecoms markets. Imagine is an industry recognised innovator in the use of TD LTE advanced fixed wireless technologies WTTx as an alternative to FTTx. Through its international network the Group provides wholesale services to telecom operators and services providers.

For more information, please visit www.imagine.ie 

About Brookfield Business Partners

Brookfield Business Partners is a business services and industrial company focused on owning and operating high-quality businesses that benefit from barriers to entry and/or low production costs. Brookfield Business Partners is listed on the New York and Toronto stock exchanges. Important information may be disseminated exclusively via the website; investors should consult the site to access this information.

Brookfield Business Partners is the flagship listed business services and industrials company of Brookfield Asset Management Inc. (NYSE:BAM)(TSX:BAM.A)(EURONEXT:BAMA), a leading global alternative asset manager with approximately $285 billion of assets under management.

For more information, please visit www.brookfield.com

Inquiries

For further inquiries, please contact:

Jack Dessay
Partner, Drake Star Partners London
jack.dessay@drakestar.com, +44 7939 215 677