Italy's Open Fiber plans 10 billion euro investments as losses widen

MILAN (Reuters) - Open Fiber on Friday said it would invest 10 billion euros ($11 billion) through to 2034 to bring broadband to around 20 million homes across Italy, after securing cash from shareholders and additional funds from lenders.

Open Fiber, which almost a decade ago Italy's government tasked with rolling out fibre optic cables across the country, is 60% owned by state lender Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP), with the rest in the hands of Australian fund Macquarie.

With the Rome government at the time at odds with Telecom Italia and its main shareholder France's Vivendi, Open Fiber started developing a competing fibre optic network to that of Telecom Italia.

Telecom Italia's grid has now been spun off to a consortium comprising U.S. fund KKR and the Italian Treasury, and an eventual merger of the two grids has long been on the cards, but the project has proven hard to achieve.

Open Fiber said its net loss widened to 364 million euros last year, versus 296 million euros in 2023, though revenue rose 16%.

"The net result is not yet a significant indicator (of performance) given the amount of capital being deployed to build the infrastructure," Open Fiber said.

At the end of last year its broadband reached 15.9 million homes it said.

With net debt totalling 6 billion euros, it forecast reaching a positive cash flow in 2028 at the latest.

Open Fiber said a group of banks had provided an additional credit facility worth 1 billion euros, which complements existing 7.2 billion euros in project financing, after its shareholder committed to providing 1 billion euros in equity.

Rothschild acted as adviser to the group of banks.

($1 = 0.9191 euros)

(Reporting by Valentina Za;Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)