The announcement describes a £2 billion (US$2.66 billion) acquisition of Substantial Group by three investors—InfraVia Capital Partners, Liberty Global, and Telefónica—through their existing joint venture nexfibre. The deal is part of a broader strategy to strengthen high-speed fibre broadband infrastructure in the United Kingdom. Substantial Group is a major alternative fibre broadband company that owns the fibre network brand Netomnia and serves hundreds of thousands of customers. By purchasing it, the investors aim to expand fibre-optic coverage and improve competition in the UK broadband market. 

Substantial Group, founded in 2019 and backed by investors such as Advencap, DigitalBridge, and Soho Square Capital, has built one of the UK’s largest alternative fibre networks. By the time the deal completes, the company is expected to have more than 3.4 million premises connected to its fibre network and over 500,000 customers. Its infrastructure is already deployed across many cities and towns in the UK, offering high-speed broadband services through internet providers like YouFibre and Brsk. The acquisition will be carried out by nexfibre, a wholesale fibre-network company jointly owned by InfraVia, Liberty Global, and Telefónica. Nexfibre was created to build and operate a large fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) network in the UK. The new purchase will significantly increase its scale by combining its own infrastructure with Substantial Group’s network. Together with upgrades planned for millions of premises connected to Virgin Media O2, the combined network is expected to reach around 8 million homes and businesses by 2027. 

Financially, the deal is supported by a new funding package of about £1 billion, with InfraVia contributing about £850 million and Liberty Global and Telefónica providing about £150 million jointly. In addition, the acquisition is expected to unlock £3.5 billion in total investment in UK fibre infrastructure. The retail broadband operations of Substantial Group—such as YouFibre and Brsk—will later be sold to Virgin Media O2, while the network infrastructure itself will remain within the nexfibre wholesale platform.