EXA Infrastructure has agreed to acquire Global Communication Net AD (GCN), a Bulgarian telecommunications company offering services on its own national fibre optic network of over 2,500km.
This acquisition marks a significant expansion of EXA Infrastructure’s strategic assets in South East Europe.
The transaction was facilitated by DB Capital as lead advisors to the majority shareholder of GCN alongside KND Partnership and Sofia Connect EAD as one of the sellers.
Completion is subject to certain customary conditions and is expected to be completed in Q4 of 2024.
EXA Infrastructure provides the critical modern infrastructure and unrivalled engineering expertise that serves as the backbone for digital and economic growth. The deal will see EXA Infrastructure acquire the full suite of GCN’s products and services, including dark fibre, wavelength and colocation services.
With the addition of GCN’s network, EXA Infrastructure will expand its extensive footprint into the strategically important region of South East Europe, providing key access to international interconnection points in Turkey, Greece, Romania, North Macedonia, Serbia and Georgia.
This region has grown in significance due to the traffic volumes entering Europe from Asia and the Middle East, and also due to the greater focus on network redundancy and alternative route provisioning given the lack of diversity around the Red Sea.
As a result of the deal, EXA Infrastructure will own 155,000km of fibre network infrastructure across 37 countries, strengthening its position as one of the largest owned networks connecting Europe to the rest of the world.
“The GCN network consists of over 2,500km of owned duct and cable connecting Sofia with all the borders neighbouring Bulgaria as well as the Black Sea coast cities of Balchik, Varna and Burgas,” said Steve Roberts, SVP of Network Investments and Products at EXA Infrastructure.
“Each of these locations is strategically important for existing and planned subsea cables, creating a natural East-West corridor. EXA Infrastructure also gains 100km of metro network connecting key data centres and business zones within Sofia.
“By adding the GCN assets into our expanding network, we continue to offer our customers more route options and more scalability traffic into and around Europe,” said Roberts.
Jim Fagan, CEO, EXA Infrastructure, added: “This acquisition further extends our network presence in South East Europe, and continues to differentiate our capabilities in serving customers for their critical infrastructure needs across the breadth of Europe. We have near-term plans to expand our network both organically and through acquisition to bring more value, options and services to our customers in an ever-changing digital world.”
