UK-based EXA Infrastructure has completed its long-running acquisition of Ireland-based subsea provider Aqua Comms for a knockdown price. The deal, agreed a year ago, strengthens its transatlantic and intra-European subsea connectivity, adding key cables to its 160,000-kilometre fibre network spanning 37 countries, while reflecting a rare distressed-asset opportunity in today’s telecoms market.
In sum – what to know:
Strategic expansion – EXA now controls Aqua Comms’ critical subsea assets, including America/Europe and Ireland/UK routes, plus participation in the Amitié cable system.
Distressed sale – The £44m deal leverages DGI9’s fire-sale situation, drawing comparisons with fibre deals from the dot-com crash – where telco infra was acquired at extreme value.
M&A strategy – The deal was completed following EXA’s €1.3bn refinancing, which follows a string of acquisitions in Europe and the Balkans, and tees it up for further M&A activity.
Digital infrastructure company EXA Infrastructure has completed its drawn-out acquisition of Ireland-based subsea connectivity provider Aqua Comms for a knockdown fee. Its previous owner, UK-based infrastructure fund Digital 9 Infrastructure (DGI9), called the transaction fee, agreed a year ago, as “extremely disappointing”. But it strengthens EXA Infrastructure’s transatlantic and intra-European subsea network, already stretching to 160,000 kilometres of fibre-optic cable across 37 countries.
It also extends the London firm’s consolidation of the fibre provider sector – about-mapped to an annual splurge, likely now accelerating following a €1.3 billion refinancing in October – after deals for Serbian dark fibre and colocation provider Conexio (announced October 2025), Bulgarian fibre operator GCN (announced September 2024), and Croatian duct and fibre firm Unitel (completed June 2023). Collectively, these deals have, or will, strengthen EXA Infrastructure’s terrestrial fibre assets across southeastern Europe and the Balkans.
Its October refinancing is to drive its merger-and-acquisition (M&A) activity. The deal for submarine cable specialist Aqua Comms was signed a year ago (January 2025), and finally completed at the tail-end of December. Between times, the purchase price has reportedly shifted upwards marginally from about “$48 million (around £40 million)” to £44 million ($59 million, at current exchange rates). But it still looks like a steal, taking advantage of DGI9’s fire-sale in early 2025 to wind down its operations.
DGI9 was unable to “deliver on its intended global growth strategy” with Aqua Comms, notably with “ongoing price compression across the global subsea fibre market, especially in the Atlantic”, said the UK-based M&A intelligence and listings service Business Sale Report. In the end, EXA Infrastructure triumphed after a nine-month auction process, finishing 12 months ago; the deal was subject to multi-jurisdictional regulatory approvals, including competition & merger clearance, through 2025.
For its patience (and its pittance), EXA Infrastructure takes charge of certain key subsea cable channels. Aqua Comms owns / operates the America Europe Connect-1 (AEC-1), America Europe Connect-2 (AEC-2), CeltixConnect-1 (CC-1), and CeltixConnect-2 (CC-2) systems, and is also part of a consortium that operates the Amitié cable system (AEC-3). Details of these are provided below. It stated: “The addition(s)… bring greater route diversity and more critical links between the US, Ireland, and mainland Europe.”
Its own M&A goal – to “fully serve the AI, cloud, and content demands of customers” – is now properly realised, it said; the deal “means EXA Infrastructure is equipped” for these ends, it wrote. On social media, Roderick Beck, a consultant in the field, commented: “EXA’s management emphasizes customer choice in its justification, but what makes it a good deal is the price. It picked up lots of fibre pairs for around $40 million. Subsea fibre IRU purchases often range from $30-$60 million per pair on life-of-system term deals. It is a great distressed purchase.”
Beck suggested the EXA/Aqua trade is roughly equivalent (“in the same ballpark”) as Columbia Venture’s purchase of parts of 360 Networks for $25 million (since rebranded as Hibernia Atlantic) in the the aftermath of the dot-com / telecoms crash in the early 2000s, when long-haul fibre was massively oversupplied. And while the Aqua Comms acquisition by EXA Infrastructure is significantly larger than the historical 360 Networks deal – about twice the transaction value, they have both involved distressed sellers, victims of the different subsea/fibre market climates.
EXA Infrastructure is a portfolio company of I Squared Capital, an independent global infrastructure investor. Jim Fagan, chief executive officer at EXA Infrastructure, commented on the deal: “With the acquisition now complete, EXA Infrastructure has significantly enhanced our Transatlantic and European connectivity offerings. Customers will benefit from unrivalled route diversity enhanced resiliency across a unified, meshed subsea and terrestrial network.”
What EXA Infrastructure gets from Aqua Comms
America Europe Connect-1 (AEC-1)
A transatlantic fibre-optic cable that directly connects the US and Ireland – between Shirley in Long Island and Killala in County Mayo. It spans roughly 5,534 kilometres, and provides high-capacity, low-latency subsea connectivity across the North Atlantic, supporting traffic between the US, Ireland and onwards to the UK and continental Europe via backhaul links. Customers are carriers, cloud providers, content networks, and enterprises – per usual.
America Europe Connect-2 (AEC-2)
A 7,622-kilometre transatlantic system (also branded under the Havfrue consortium) with landings in the US (New Jersey, bypassing traditional NYC landing paths for diversity) and Northern Europe (Denmark and Ireland). AEC-2 adds capacity and route diversity for hyperscale data centre connectivity between North America, Scandinavia, Ireland, and the UK, designed for high-reliability and -resiliency scalability with modern wavelength services.
CeltixConnect-1 (CC-1)
A subsea fibre link across the Irish Sea connecting Ireland and the UK, going 131 kilometres between Dublin in Ireland and Anglesey in Wales to provide regional intra-European connectivity and feeds into wider networks (including AEC systems) for traffic between Ireland, the UK and beyond. Geared for short, secure crossings – as prized for connecting businesses and networks with low-latency intra-European traffic.
CeltixConnect-2 (CC-2)
A newer Irish Sea subsea cable system that expands on CC-1’s connectivity, going 301 kilometres between Dublin in Ireland and Blackpool in the UK, with additional branching, including into the Isle of Man. Again, the idea is to enhance network diversity and capacity between Ireland and the UK and improve resilience when paired with CC-1; it works with the wider AEC/CC network to deliver robust intra-Europe routes.
America Europe Connect-3 (Amitié AEC‑3)
A 6,000-kilometre transatlantic subsea fibre- system between the US and Europe, connecting New York in the US to Le Havre in France, Killala in Ireland, and Blaabjerg in Denmark (with optional branching into Northern Europe). Aqua/EXA is a consortium member/operator, owning certain fibre pairs and capacity rights, giving it direct control over a portion of transatlantic traffic, extending its transatlantic footprint beyond AEC‑1/2 and complementing its intra-European CC‑1/2 links.
