The Group finances very high-speed broadband in two départements
Eight of our banks are involved in an initiative to connect more than 160,000 households in the Côte d'Or (central/eastern France) and Landes (southwest) départements to very high-speed broadband networks.
Altitude Infrastructure THD, France's leading independent telecom infrastructure operator, has closed a financing package worth more than 266 million euros for these two projects covering the design, construction, operation, and maintenance of two private very high-speed broadband networks in the Côte d'Or département (57,000 points of access) and Landes département (105,000 points of access).
As the largest provider of funds for these operations, the Group is once again demonstrating its commitment to promoting digital inclusion and regional & local development.
Natixis acted as the arranger and coordinator of Groupe BPCE's response as well as the coordinator of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) criteria, enabling these two projects to benefit from the “social loan” label in line with market practices and the social objectives of the initiatives.
Three Caisses d'Epargne – the Aquitaine Poitou-Charentes, Bourgogne Franche Comté and Midi-Pyrénées savings banks – co-arranged the financing of the operation.
Finally, the Caisse d'Epargne Normandie, the Caisse d'Epargne Ile-de-France, BRED, and Banque Palatine also acted as guarantor banks for one line of financing.
With its involvement in this operation Groupe BPCE continues to support the digital development of these regions after contributing to other similar operations elsewhere in France, notably in the Nord Pas de Calais (2016), Hérault (2018), Tarn et Garonne (2019), Yonne (2020) and Loire-Atlantique (2020) départements. It should be noted that these projects form part of the “France Very High-Speed Broadband Plan,” an initiative set up to provide 80% of the French population with optical fiber connections by 2022 and 100% by 2025.