PwC Corporate Finance team advises Equitix on its acquisition of a minority stake and investment in Grain Connect Limited

The PwC UK Infrastructure M&A Corporate Finance team is pleased to announce it has advised Equitix GP 6 Limited (“Equitix”) on the acquisition of a minority shareholding and investment of c. £75m in Grain Connect Limited (“Grain”), a Carlisle-based fibre to the premise (“FTTP”) developer.

Established in 2016, Grain delivers high-quality fibre broadband solutions predominantly to new build sites as well as existing homes using an innovative self-deployed FTTP network. The company partners with developers across the country and has already begun to roll out full fibre broadband to a number of towns and cities across the North of England.

Equitix’s investment - their first in the sector - will support Grain’s rollout ambitions to reach an initial 300,000 homes and businesses across Great Britain. The company will be led by CEO Richard Cameron, who provides a wealth of experience from his previous role as CFO of BT’s Global Services.

Existing shareholders Pinnacle and Albion Capital will retain an interest in the business. Following the transaction, the business will aim to raise up to £100m in debt to support the rollout.

PwC acted as lead advisor to Equitix on the transaction. This accounts for the seventh digital infrastructure deal completion by PwC’s UK Infrastructure M&A team in the past 12 months.

The PwC CF deal team was led by James Pincus and Asim Iqbal, and supported by Luke Sandford, Andrew Copeland, Mohammed Khan, Won-Tek Woo, Lukas Lastas and Trudi Cheung.