The Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF) has commenced investing some of the €335m gained when the state sold its Aer Lingus shareholding, announcing the first two investments from its Connectivity Fund.
Dublin-based Aqua Comms is to get an equity investment of €22m from ISIF. It is the operator of Ireland’s first subsea fibre-optic network interconnecting New York, Dublin and London. Aqua Comms is a provider of data connectivity and bandwidth infrastructure services for content providers, cloud-based networks, data centres, IT companies and the global media.
The company specialises in sub-sea telecoms and is owner and operator of CeltixConnect, an advanced sub-sea telecoms network. Aqua Comms Designated Activity Company was established in 2015, and earlier this year announced that it had secured an equity investment of around $75m (€68m) from Cartesian Capital Group to finance its growth initiatives.
According to Aqua Comms, ISIF indicated that it could invest a further €23m of equity capital alongside a similar amount from Cartesian Capital Group.
ISIF also rolled an existing commitment in a Dublin Airport Authority’s bond issued in 2008 (repayable in 2018), into a €35m commitment in a new 2028 public bond issuance by daa, the operator of Dublin and Cork Airports.
In Association with
According to ISIF: “Given the nature of the underlying business of daa, and the fact that the new bond issuance provides the underpinning long-term financing for the company, the ISIF commitment to the 2028 bond is considered suited to inclusion under the Connectivity Fund.”
The aim of the Connectivity Fund is to enable and enhance Ireland’s physical, virtual and energy connectivity. ISIF said that several other investment opportunities are being assessed under its “double bottom line” mandate, which is to seek both commercial return and economic impact. The opportunities include potential investments in energy, air, sea and further data connectivity projects.
ISIF director Eugene O’Callaghan commented: “The two investments announced today are the first to reach fruition from an active pipeline of potential opportunities for the Connectivity sub portfolio. We are looking forward to seeing connectivity investments being completed by ISIF, over time, in a range of commercially viable projects with economic impact and competitiveness benefits for Ireland.”
