Brazil's Brisanet, Alloha secure nearly US$70mn from BNDES for expansion

Brisanet and Alloha, the two largest Brazilian internet service providers, together secured nearly 400mn reais (US$69mn) in financing from federal development bank BNDES to expand their fiber networks.

Brisanet was approved 200mn reais in a loan with resources from Fust, the telecoms universalization services fund managed by BNDES.

Resources will go to the connectivity of public schools and the deployment of fiber backbone in five states in the northeast region, according to the ISP.

The total is divided into 26.6mn reais for the implementation of broadband in public schools and 173mn reais for the deployment of the backbone, Brisanet said in a market filing.

The first tranche encompasses the construction of 430km of fiber for the provision of free Wi-Fi to 51 public schools in 27 municipalities in Ceará state and two municipalities in Rio Grande do Norte. Around 8,200 students are expected to benefit from the investments.

The fiber backbone, in turn, is projected to have 2,806km and serve 96 municipalities in the states of Bahia, Ceará, Paraíba, Pernambuco and Rio Grande do Norte.

ALLOHA

Alloha Fibra, for its part, was approved 192mn reais from Fust. In August, Alloha had secured 148mn reais in financing from the development bank.

According to the company, the new line of credit will be used to expand broadband coverage in 81 municipalities, benefiting more than 300,000 people.

With the expansion, the company will operate in 22 more cities in Maranhão state, 12 in Pará, 16 in Ceará, 10 in Piauí, seven in Mato Grosso do Sul, six in Rio de Janeiro, four in Sergipe and four in Paraná.

The company previously said it also looks to issue 250mn reais in new incentivized debentures, or special infrastructure bonds, to finance a fiber network modernization project.

Last week, Alloha received antitrust clearance to acquire Maranhão-based ISP Atex Net Telecomunicações.