Stonepeak Infrastructure Agrees to Deal for Xplornet

(Bloomberg) -- Stonepeak Infrastructure Partners has agreed to buy Canadian broadband service provider Xplornet Communications Inc. for about $2 billion, including debt, according to people familiar with the matter.

Xplornet, which owns a hybrid fiber wireless and satellite network, had been seeking a buyer the past few months, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the matter is private.

A deal could be announced as soon as next month, they said.

Representatives for Xplornet, based in Woodstock, New Brunswick, and New York-based Stonepeak didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

Led by Chief Executive Allison Lenehan, Xplornet agreed this month to acquire Silo Wireless Inc., a smaller rival focused on the southwestern Ontario market.

Xplornet serves about 1 million Canadians in the nation’s provinces and territories, according to its website. That includes more than 300,000 in rural areas that typically don’t have access to regular wireless networks. Its hybrid network relies on fixed-wireless towers and satellites to reach remote regions.

Closely held Xplornet’s current owners include private equity firms Sandler Capital Management and Catalyst Investors.

Stonepeak, invests in “long-lived, hard-asset businesses and projects that provide essential services to customers,” according to its website. It has been investing its $7.2 billion third fund, and last week, agreed to buy TRAC Intermodal, an intermodal infrastructure provider, from an affiliate of Fortress Investment Group LLC.

To contact the reporters on this story: Liana Baker in New York at lbaker75@bloomberg.net;Gillian Tan in New York at gtan129@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Elizabeth Fournier at efournier5@bloomberg.net, ;Alan Goldstein at agoldstein5@bloomberg.net, Michael Hytha, Matthew Monks

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