Paris, May 2025 – Astris Finance congratulates its client Losange for the successful EUR 735 million refinancing of its very high-speed broadband concession in northeastern France.

In July 2017, Région Grand Est, the regional government for northeastern France, awarded a concession (known as “Délégation de Service Public”) for the design, construction, operation, marketing and financing of a superfast broadband network covering the seven of the region’s ten departments to Losange SAS, a project company owned by Altitude Infrastructure THD (part of the Altitude Infra group, 57%), NGE Fibre (part of NGE group, 22%) and Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations - Banque des Territoires (21%).

On May 27, 2025, Losange closed the refinancing of its initial senior debt package through a innovative, long-term amortizing facility for a total amount of EUR 735 million, composed of a 26-year, fixed-rate bond of EUR 325 million; a 20-year, variable-rate bank loan of EUR 375 million; and a debt service reserve facility of EUR 35 million.

The bond was subscribed by AXA Investment Managers and Allianz Global Investors; while the bank tranche was arranged by Société Générale (who also acted as documentation bank and agent), Arkéa CIB & Crédit Mutuel Arkéa, the BPCE group (BRED Banque Populaire, Caisse d’Epargne Ile-de-France, Caisse d’Epargne Normandie, Caisse Epargne Grand Est Europe and Natixis), the Crédit Agricole group (AUXIFIP, Crédit Agricole Alsace-Vosges, Crédit Agricole de Lorraine and LCL), La Banque Postale and Nord/LB. The same bank group provided an interest rate swap.

Astris acted as exclusive financial advisor to Losange in the structuring and placement of the refinancing.

Florent Nicol, Director at Astris Finance France, said: “the French regulated FTTH sector is slowly evolving into a mature market, with the first concessions reaching refinancing stage and their deployment rate stabilizing. Commercial ramp-up is driven by customer migration from broadband to optical fiber – a trend expected to benefit from the regulatory push for the complete switch-off of copper lines by 2030 as per the Plan France Très Haut Débit. This favorable context, coupled with the quality of the Losange asset, allowed us to optimize the capital structure with a long-dated, dual bank-bond tranche – tailor made to the appetite of the two liquidity buckets in terms of maturity and pre-payment risk.”

This landmark refinancing is a testimony to Astris’s positioning as market leader in debt advisory across the full spectrum of infrastructure and energy sectors. It is also an additional milestone in our longstanding collaboration with the Losange shareholders.