- FiberCop increases bond offer from $1.5B to $3B to support broadband expansion and infrastructure projects in Italy.
- Investor backing shows confidence in its strategy after separation from former parent TIM.
What happened: Bond offer raised to $3B after investor surge
FiberCop, a fibre network operator in Italy, announced a $1.5B bond offering on Monday. Two days later, it raised the size of the offer to $3B after seeing strong interest from investors. The company did not give full details on the level of demand. But Italian tech site Key4Biz reported that the offer drew $6.4B in subscriptions in the first few days. This was more than four times the original amount. The company said it would use the funds for general business purposes, such as capital spending and paying off some existing debt.
FiberCop’s Chief Financial Officer André Rogowski said that the strong support from the market showed trust in the company’s goals and performance. Last year, FiberCop spent about $2.6B on capital projects, with $1.5B used in the second half of the year alone. That spending followed a new rollout strategy after its full separation from TIM. By the end of 2024, it had connected 12.2 million homes to fibre-to-the-home (FTTH). That number was up by 2 million compared with the year before. The company said it has now completed around 60% of its rollout target for the next three years.
Also Read: FiberCop leads Italian FTTH growth
Also Read: FTTH Council highlights challenges with copper network holdouts
Why this is important
The sharp rise in demand for FiberCop’s bond issue shows that investors are confident in the company’s long-term role in Italy’s digital network. After it separated from TIM, FiberCop was expected to handle fibre buildout work more quickly. So far, it has moved ahead with its plans and kept pace with its targets. The company’s progress is also helping it meet its commitments under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), which supports broadband in areas that private firms often avoid. It aims to complete its share of the NRRP by June 2026.
While FiberCop continues to hit its goals, its main competitor Open Fiber is not moving as fast. Reuters said earlier this month that Open Fiber is falling behind on its NRRP targets. It was awarded contracts to serve 2.2 million of the 3.4 million homes under the plan. Because of its delays, the Italian government has looked at shifting some of the work to FiberCop. Talks between the two companies have not led to a deal. Italian paper Il Giornale said this week that the talks are unlikely to go anywhere. This failure may slow down plans to combine the two firms in the future. But FiberCop’s success with the bond and its rollout shows it can still move forward on its own.