Clifford Chance has advised the funders to CityFibre, the UK’s largest independent carrier-neutral Full Fibre platform, on its up to £4.9bn financing.

The new debt package is structured under a common terms platform – a European first for fibre financings.

The funders comprised NatWest, Société Générale, Crédit Agricole CIB, BBVA, Intesa Sanpaolo, ING, and SEB as underwriters, with ABN AMRO, Lloyds Bank, M&G Investments, and the UK Infrastructure Bank taking cornerstone commitments.

CityFibre is owned by Antin Infrastructure Partners, Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Mubadala and Interogo.

The debt package is intended to fully finance CityFibre’s rollout of fibre infrastructure to 8 million UK homes, and enable it to participate in Project Gigabit – the UK government’s scheme to reach rural homes.

The Clifford Chance team was led by finance partner Michael Bates and director Lucinda Hamilton, supported by Elphina Franklin, Aram Valesyan and Marya Manna. Hedging expertise was provided by Will Winterton, Arshak Mkrtchyan and Stine-Lise Budge, and tax expertise provided by Jemma Dick and Alex Shaw.