Good evening,

Macquarie’s Infrastructure and Energy Capital division, owner of telco towers in the Philippines and mobile networks in India, has found an Australian asset to add to its portfolio.

Street Talk understands fast internet provider GigaComm has agreed terms to bring in the Macquarie unit as a strategic investor under a structured funding solution. It comes after GigaComm hired Morgan Stanley to find an infrastructure-minded partner that would invest about $100 million.

GigaComm sells ultra-fast internet to apartment buildings, stratas and commercial users at speeds of about 1 gigabyte a second, way faster than NBN. It is building an optical fibre and fixed wireless network that would help it compete with incumbents such as TPG Telecom, Optus and Telstra. The pitch is faster internet, at better prices.

Macquarie Infrastructure and Energy Capital is a specialist principal investing unit inside the bank, headed by London-based Mark Bradshaw. Although not frequently spotted at Australian auctions, it’s an investor in the likes of PhilTower, owner of mobile towers in the country.

GigaComm’s founders, Sophearom En and Peter Shore, also worked at the investment bank, with the latter covering telcos and media coverage within Macquarie’s infrastructure funds management business in Europe.

Lastly, Palisade Impact, which joined GigaComm as an investor in 2022, is helmed by former MacCap Asia boss Jeremy Wernert and Steve Gross, who was the bank’s global head of impact investing. The firm is understood to have topped up its investment in the latest round.

Read the full story tomorrow and more on the Street Talk page.

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Optus reported a 1.4 per cent increase in operating revenue to $4 billion for the half year ending September 30, which boiled down to $1 billion EBITDA. Its earnings were down 3.2 per cent, owing to higher operating expenses and weaker margins in the enterprise division.

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