Private Equity | Synergy Capital invests in Suburban Fiber, Nigeria

LAGOS, Nigeria, Capital Markets in Africa — Synergy Capital Managers (Synergy) has announced the completion of its investment in Suburban Fiber Company Limited (Suburban), a Next Generation Broadband company focused on delivering home content solutions to retail end customers in Abuja and Lagos. This is the sixth investment from the Synergy Private Equity Fund I (SPEF).

Suburban operates an Internet Protocol (IP) Next Generation Network (NGN) which, at its core, takes advantage of the technology advances provided by the trend towards network convergence with the ability to transfer voice, data and media services. Presently, Suburban has a network of over 380km of metro and last-­‐mile fibre currently delivering triple and dual-­‐play services to business and residential customers in Abuja. SPEF’s investment in Suburban Fiberco will drive the Company’s growth, through investment in network expansion, marketing, bandwidth and content to attract new customers onto its network.

The manager is excited about the investment as it furthers the diversification of its portfolio and targets the opportunity in the future evolution of the ‘fibre to the home’ (FTTH) and Triple-­‐Play markets in Nigeria. Akintoye Akindele, Partner at Synergy Capital Managers states that, “in Suburban, we are convinced we have found the right operator with the right vision and proven capacity to execute on the strategy to change the future of triple and dual play internet services across Nigeria and West Africa.”

The CEO of the company, Mr. Bruce Ayonote commenting on the investment said, “we are very pleased with the investment of Synergy Private Equity Fund in Suburban Fiber Company Ltd. All through the process right to closure, the Manager’s engagement helped increase the value of the company. We were also seeking to improve the governance framework, the capital structure of the company and strengthen the financial control systems. We achieved all three of these objectives with this investment and now have all we require to execute our strategy.”

On this transaction, Udo Udoma & Belo Osagie and The New Practice acted as legal counsels, Frost & Sullivan performed commercial diligence of the opportunity, KPMG was responsible for financial due diligence while Environmental Accord did the environmental, social and governance diligence.