Single network, tightening of deadlines: building site to start by February

Open Fiber secures the resources to finance its business plan until 2029 and puts itself in a position to be able to tackle the discussions on the 'single network' project, which remains Cdp's objective, without difficulty. According to what has been reconstructed by 'Il Sole-24Ore', the construction site should open early next year, as early as February.

Yesterday, the board of the company, which is 60% owned by Cdp equity and 40% by the Macquarie infrastructure fund, took note of the agreement reached between its shareholders and between its shareholders and the banks to release on the one hand the part of the old financing that had not yet been utilised and on the other to secure new funds to support the plan. Specifically, after this summer's drawdown, just over EUR 600 million in bank loans and EUR 210 million in shareholders' capital contributions remained to be drawn down.

With these resources, Open Fiber should be able to sustain work on the development of the fibre network until at least late spring, after which the refinancing umbrella will open, which envisages the injection of additional resources of more than EUR 2 billion, 45% of which, in the form of equity, will be borne by the shareholders and 55%, in the form of debt, by the banks. After the shareholders' commitment to underwrite the recapitalisation, the board also received the OK from the banking pool, comprising some 30 institutions, to provide new credit.

In the meantime, the 610 million euro (three instalments from 2027 to 2029) envisaged for the rebalancing of the economic-financial plan in white areas, those with market failure, where Open Fiber has the fibre network concession, owned by Infratel, which should be completed next year, will also arrive with the Finance Bill, approved at first reading in the Chamber of Deputies. For the same purpose, 50 million have already been advanced for 2024, with the Fiscal Decree, from three regions, Lazio, Calabria and Sicily.

Still to be unravelled is the node of the scattered houses in the grey areas, the semi-competitive ones where the construction of the network is subsidised with NRP funds. There are 430,000 housing units, of which about 300,000 in the eight lots contracted out to Open Fiber (the remainder are in the seven lots of FiberCop), which it would be unreasonable and totally uneconomic to reach with fibre optics, considering that each kilometre of infrastructure entails a construction cost of more than 40,000 euro and that other technologies are now available - for example satellite - to ensure fast connections at more sustainable costs. The issue will obviously have to be discussed with Brussels: the competent interlocutor for Italy is the Ministry for European Affairs and the NRP, which, until his appointment as vice-president of the European Commission, was headed by Raffaele Fitto. In the grey areas, the constraint - in order not to lose the funds of the NRPR (to date, a total of 3.4 billion has been allocated for the 15 lots of the 1 Giga Italy plan) - is to complete work on the construction of the network by the end of June 2026.