Sunday, December 1, 2019

GTT looks to sell subsea cables and European fiber network

GTT Communications has retained Credit Suisse and Goldman Sachs as financial advisors in connection with the potential sale of the Infrastructure Division, which includes its terrestrial pan-European fiber network, subsea transatlantic fiber and data centers. This infrastructure was part of GTT's acquisition of Interoute and of Hibernia.

“The appointment of Credit Suisse and Goldman Sachs is an important step in our process to explore the sale of our Infrastructure Division,” stated Rick Calder, GTT president and CEO. “This potential divestiture in no way alters the execution of GTT’s core strategy of providing cloud networking services to large and multinational clients as we deliver on our purpose of connecting people to any location in the world and to every application in the cloud.”


In November, GTT Communications reported revenue of $420.0 million for the quarter ended September 30, 2019, a decline of 6.4% compared to 3Q18, and a decline of 3.2% compared to 2Q19. The sequential revenue decline of 3.2% was attributable to a 0.9% decline in monthly recurring cash revenue, a 0.8% decline from foreign currency, a 0.7% decline in non-recurring and other revenue, a 0.6% decline in the runoff of non-cash deferred revenue, and a 0.2% increase in revenue credits.

Net loss for the quarter was $26.2 million compared to net loss of $23.4 million in 3Q18 and net loss of $33.3 million in 2Q19.

Net install trends improved sequentially over the course of the quarter and net installs were positive in October.

GTT to acquire KPN International for EUR 50 million

GTT Communications agreed to acquire KPN International for approximately €50 million in cash, on a cash and debt-free basis.

KPN International, which is headquartered in the Netherlands and is a division of KPN N.V., operates a global IP network serving enterprise and carrier clients.

GTT said the acquisition augments its the scale and reach of its Tier 1 global IP network in Europe. KPN International's network spans 21 countries, including long-haul fiber routes and metro rings in Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam and Paris. It has more than 400 strategic enterprise and carrier clients.

“The acquisition of KPN International deepens our market presence in the European region,” said Rick Calder, GTT president and CEO. “The world-class resources contributed from this acquisition, including a highly experienced team, international network assets and a deep roster of multinational clients, will help us deliver on our purpose of connecting people across organizations around the world and to every application in the cloud.”

The acquisition is expected to close in the third quarter 2019 subject to obtaining the required regulatory approvals.

GTT acquires Accelerated Connections, expanding across Canada

GTT Communications has acquired Accelerated Connections (ACI), a Toronto-headquartered provider of managed networking, voice-over-IP (VoIP) and colocation services, serving large distributed Canadian enterprises. Financial terms were not disclosed at this time.

ACI operates a network connecting all of Canada's provinces, as well as two state-of-the-art data center facilities.



GTT's acquisition of Interoute adds 72K km of European fiber to its transatlantic cables

GTT Communications agreed to acquire Interoute, operator of one of Europe’s largest independent fiber networks and cloud networking platforms, for approximately €1.9 billion ($2.3 billion) in cash.

Interoute's European fiber backbone spans 72,000 route kilometers connects nearly 200 data centres and colocation facilities.  Interoute also owns 15 of its own data centers and 33 colocation facilities. Its customers include international enterprises, as well as the world’s major service providers, ICPs and OTT providers. The company also operates 18 Interoute Virtual Data Centres (VDCs) globally, including three in Asia-Pacific, which are tied into its fiber backbone. In October 2017, Interoute launched its "Edge SD-WAN" service.

Interoute offers transport services (wavelength, Carrier Ethernet, managed bandwidth, storage connect, IP transit, cloud connect) and infrastructure services (dark fiber and data center colocation).

Interoute reported revenues of €718 million and adjusted EBITDA of €165 million for the 12 months ending September 30, 2017.

GTT said the merger contributes significant infrastructure, edge and hosted services to its network, as well as over 1,000 strategic enterprise and carrier clients, primarily headquartered in Europe.

In January 2017, GTT acquired Hibernia Networks and its five subsea cables, including Hibernia Express, the lowest latency transatlantic cable system, and eight cable landing stations, new global points of presence, and key clients in the financial services, media and entertainment, web-centric and service provider segments.

GTT to Acquire Hibernia for Transatlantic Cable Network

GTT Communications agree to acquire Hibernia Networks, which owns the new Hibernia Express transatlantic cable systems and other terrestrial and undersea fiber assets, for $590 million.  The deal consists of $515 million in cash and approximately 3.3 million shares of GTT common stock, to be issued to the sellers at closing, valued at $75 million.

GTT operates a global Tier 1 IP network with owned and leased dark fiber assets including five owned subsea cables and eight cable landing stations. The company delivers global cloud services to multinational customers. GTT is based in McLean, Virginia.