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Zayo Group

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Telecom

Zayo is a leading independent provider of bandwidth infrastructure across the U.S., Canada and parts of Europe. Its fiber network supports high-bandwidth applications including cloud computing, video, mobile and other bandwidth-intensive services.

Investment Summary

We invested in Zayo in 2009, providing growth capital to support the company’s expansion. Zayo remained in our portfolio through 2016.

Investing Behind a Contrarian Telecom Theme

Our original investment followed a thematic initiative focused on what we viewed as an overlooked and promising telecom segment. We believed the sector’s dislocation obscured underlying strength – notably accelerating bandwidth demand and a more disciplined supply/demand balance.

Scaling Through M&A

Zayo completed more than two dozen acquisitions during our hold period. Notable was the $2.2 billion acquisition of AboveNet in 2012, where we were the lead inside anchor investor in a $473 million equity financing.

Driving Organic Growth

Zayo pursued organic growth opportunities supported by robust bandwidth demand. The company combined metro fiber, regional fiber and colocation assets for large customers, expanded into new customer sets and grew nationwide relationships with major wireless carriers.

Building the Organization

Zayo substantially expanded its management team during our ownership, making key management promotions and new hires in each division, building out a unified corporate infrastructure and creating new jobs in their communities.

Exit

We sold our position through an IPO in late 2016.