UK independent full-fibre platform, CityFibre has announced that it delivered £100m in revenue in 2023, which the company calls a “significant milestone” for the business as its scaling continues at pace.
CityFibre’s fibre optic network expansion saw the provider deliver more than 1 million “ready for service” premises to its wholesale partners during 2023. The network has now passed 3.5 million premises, of which more than 3.2 million are ready for service.
What’s more, CityFibre says that the expansion was delivered at target cost, which has remained flat in nominal terms over the past four years, as build partner and portfolio optimisation and performance improvements, alongside CityFibre’s scale offset input cost inflation and the volatile operating backdrop.
During 2023, the performance of CityFibre’s 41 internet service provider (ISP) partners continued to drive take-up on the network, which added 165,000 new customer connections, an increase of 98% over those delivered in 2022. This brought CityFibre’s live customer connections to over 337,000.
CityFibre’s most mature UK FTTH market
CityFibre’s most mature market is Milton Keynes, where the build programme was completed in 2022. More than 30% of the homes in the area have moved over to CityFibre’s network. The first areas served in the city have now achieved approximately 40% take-up and penetration continues to grow month on month.
The business is also a delivery partner to the government for rural connectivity, and it secured four new contracts with a total value of £387m under its Project Gigabit programme. These will subsidise the roll-out of gigabit-capable infrastructure to 262,000 rural properties across the country that may otherwise have been excluded from commercial rollouts. The awards also unlocked an additional commercial expansion by CityFibre in the target regions of over 450,000 premises.
CityFibre’s latest financing initiatives
In 2022, CityFibre completed a £3.9bn financing, and has a further £550m of available equity, reflecting strong ongoing support from its investors, and putting it on a firm financial footing to deliver its 8 million premises target. CityFibre says it expects to deliver a further one million ready-for-service premises to its partners through continued build and pursuing a well-developed pipeline of M&A opportunities.
Greg Mesch, Chief Executive Officer at CityFibre explains: “In spite of a challenging operating environment, CityFibre continues to go from strength to strength. During 2023, we generated over £100m in revenues, delivered our target of one million ready-for-service premises, and doubled take-up across our footprint. We look forward to building on this firm foundation and exploring opportunities to transform our expansion ambitions in 2024 and beyond.”
