Connecting Europe Broadband Fund (CEBF) announces its first investment in collaboration with Vahta RuNe Project in Croatia. CEBF has signed an agreement with Vahta d.o.o. (Slovenia) and 3T Cable d.o.o. (Croatia) to set up RuNe Group (Luxembourg), which will be the window for investment and responsible for FTTH deployment.
RuNe stands for Rural Networks.
As per the plans, the team will deploy high-quality fiber-to-the-home (FTTH), open-access network for residential, business and public administration in the rural areas of the Primorje-Gorski Kotar and Istria regions — the two Northwestern counties in Croatia. The project will cover more than 135,000 business and residential subscribers with fiber.
It took a lot of effort for the RuNe project to become the first of its kind from the CEBF. The team members expressed their enthusiasm about the beginning of implementation and construction of the project.
A private equity fund has been raised in June 2018 for an amount of 420 million euros to invest in greenfield investments and expansion projects in Europe’s broadband infrastructure. CEBF was established by the European Commission, the European Investment Bank (EIB), the German Kfw Bankengruppe, the Italian Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP) and the French Caisse des Dépôts et consignations (CDC), while the management was entrusted to Cube Infrastructure Managers (Cube IM).
CEBF supports economically and technically feasible greenfield broadband access projects that for various reasons were unable to find funding sources. RuNe corresponds to the requirements of CEBF. The CEBF was announced in December 2016 as the first investment platform to support broadband infrastructure under the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI), the heart of the Investment Plan for Europe.
In 2016, the European Commission and the European Investment Bank (EIB) announce today their plans to launch a fund for broadband infrastructure – the Connecting Europe Broadband Fund. This fund will lead to an investment platform combining private and public commitments. The purpose of CEBF is to contribute to the achievement of the European Gigabit Society objectives.
CEBF aims to raise €500 million for broadband investment by 2020 and is expected to unlock total investments of €1-1.7 billion. Its public investors include the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the European Commission.
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