Wed, 31 Dec 2025 | DIVISION SALE
London Stock Exchange-listed investment trust Digital 9 Infrastructure plc has completed the sale of subsea fibre business Aqua Comms for a final net consideration of £34 million.
The business, which operates fibre networks across the Atlantic and Irish sea, has been acquired by EXA Infrastructure, a London-based portfolio company of leading global infrastructure investor I Squared Capital.
The deal was first announced in January 2025, when EXA Infrastructure signed a binding agreement to acquire the business, which specialises in operating submarine cable systems and supplying fibre pairs, spectrum and wholesale network capacity services across global markets.
EXA Infrastructure CEO Jim Fagan said that the deal significantly expands the company’s Transatlantic and European connectivity offerings, adding that its customers would now “benefit from unrivalled route diversity enhanced resiliency across a unified, meshed subsea and terrestrial network."
The £34 million deal is £1.6 million higher than the valuation of the business included in Digital 9’s interim results from earlier this year, with the increase described as reflecting final completion adjustments and currency movements.
In accounts for the year to December 31 2024, Aqua Comms (UK) Limited reported turnover of around $6.2 million, up from $4.1 million a year earlier, while cutting its pre-tax losses from $2 million to approximately $1.8 million.
Post-acquisition, Digital 9 Infrastructure’s board has said it intends to return approximately two-thirds of the sale proceeds to shareholders via a compulsory capital redemption, which it sees as the most effective means of distributing returns to investors.
The remaining third will be retained to support Digital 9’s ongoing costs as it proceeds with its wider wind-down strategy, with the business expecting to sell its remaining assets, which include Arqiva and Elio Networks, over the coming years.
Such divestments form part of the business’ previously announced plan to realise value from its assets in the wake of a prolonged period of underperformance across listed digital infrastructure funds.
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