ITS Technology Group has announced that it has completed the acquisition of dark fibre specialist NextGenAccess.
The deal adds 455km of dark fibre across Greater London, Newport, and South Essex to complement ITS’ existing full fibre footprint which is on track to pass 25% of UK business premises by the end of this year. Alongside ITS’ strong organic growth and positive EBITDA position, the acquisition kickstarts its ‘build and buy’ strategy following its second round Aviva Investors infrastructure funding which secured a further £100m in April this year.
ITS designs, builds and operates wholesale full fibre networks known as ‘Faster Britain’ in the marketplace. It has built a substantial partner offering which includes an industry-leading self-service search, quote and order portal and APIs giving access to gigabit-capable full fibre solutions to any business across the country.
The additional footprint provided by the acquisition of NextGenAccess, coupled with the highly experienced senior management team and staff, and the significant enhancement to the portfolio of dark fibre services, further enriches what ITS can offer to its channel partners and their customers.
The acquisition will also allow ITS to grow its presence in the data centre connectivity marketplace, further developing NextGenAccess’ impressive proposition. As a provider of ‘trunk’ connectivity, NextGenAccess has high levels of trust alongside high standards of delivery in this space, which is seen as a key growth area for ITS.
Daren Baythorpe, CEO of ITS Technology Group, says: “NextGenAccess is an extremely capable and exciting business with a very talented team that I am delighted to welcome onboard. There are significant synergies between our two businesses. In addition to the fibre assets in the ground and portfolio of solutions, the experience that this team will bring to ITS will allow us to substantially bolster our dark fibre credentials. This will allow us to deepen our relationships with carriers, telecom operators, service providers, and resellers. This will also further accelerate our full fibre rollout and reach as we play our part in creating a ‘Gigabit Britain’.
“We’re excited to expand our own data centre offering by developing NextGenAccess’ existing proposition in the space, as well as opening new opportunities on the network to deliver Layer 2 and 3 services to our partner community.
“The acquisition of NextGenAccess adds depth to the innovative and business enhancing services we offer to our partners and their customers, cementing our place as one of the leading wholesale fibre providers in the UK. I’m really excited for this next phase of our business.”
Mark Weller, Managing Director at NextGenAccess, comments: “Following a successful period of growth, the time is right to take the next step and allow our partners and their customers to benefit from our significant joint capability and experience in the full fibre market. We are all very pleased that the ITS values and culture are extremely close to those already present within NextGenAccess which should make the integration of the businesses seamless.”
“I am looking forward to being part of the ITS team and further helping the group to develop and deliver a leading full fibre portfolio.”
Chris Hogg, Senior Investment Director at Amber Infrastructure, adds: “We have worked closely with the NextGenAccess management team to develop the business since our investment in 2018. The combination of NextGenAccess with ITS enhances their footprint and gives significant joint capability and experience in the UK enterprise fibre market, helping to further accelerate the combined group’s planned fibre deployment.”
