Superloop to buy rival Lynham for $165 million

Superloop has announced plans to acquire rival fibre-to-the-premise (FTTP) network wholesaler, Lightning Broadband, for $165 million after upgrading its full-year earnings guidance.

The cash deal, which is subject to approvals, will see Superloop take a 100 percent stake in the multi-dwelling unit specialist’s owner, Lynham Networks, to expand its built and contracted FTTP footprint to 170,000 lots.

Commenting on company’s half-year results today, Superloop chief executive Paul Tyler said that the acquisition would bolster the company’s credentials as a network infrastructure builder and its overall credibility as a national FTTP challenger to “incumbents”.

“I wanted to note that this acquisition accelerates Superloop [as a] national fibre-to-the-premise challenger, with materially greater exposure to high margin, annuity style, revenues, and high-quality earnings,” Tyler said.

Tyler said that the acquisition would accelerate its “smart communities” strategy to chase higher margin broadband services by focusing on high-density and greenfield developments where it aims to compete with the national network builder, NBN Co.

The acquisition will see Superloop add a mix of 24,000 built lots to its books and contracts for a further 30,000 expected to be built over the next five years, with the transition expected to be completed in the fourth quarter.

Lynham currently has 14,000 active wholesale services, with revenue from the division reaching 46.7 million, a 28 percent increase over the previous corresponding half.

“This acquisition is the next step in the strategy we've been executing for some years. Superloop has deliberately built capabilities in smart communities and has now added significant scale through the Lightning Broadband acquisition,” Tyler said during the half-year earnings call.

“The is acquisition enhances our market standing with developers and major retail service providers,” Tyler added.

Superloop is aiming to achieve annualised cost savings of $5 million in the first three years of the deal by integrating the two companies’ networks and finding other infrastructure efficiencies.

The deal will allow Superloop to shift Lynham’s network operations to its international transit and overseas network infrastructure.

Superloop said that it expected to absorb just under 70 Lynham employees following completion of the acquisition.

Lynham Networks is the statutory wholesale infrastructure owner and operator of the FTTP infrastructure that Lightning Broadband retails under its brand.

Lynham targets builds in residential apartments and commercial developments where commercial appetite to duplicate infrastructure is poor.

The announcement rode on the back of a solid half-year financial performance for Superloop, which reported a net profit after tax of $5.1 million for the six months to December 31 on group revenue of $317.6 million.

The company has also upgraded its full-year earnings guidance. It said it was on track to reach revenue of $700 million with underlying EBITDA in the mid-to-high teens, and for a positive net profit after tax result.

Its full-year earnings guidance has improved from $109 to $117 million to between $112 million and $120 million.

The company’s revenue was concentrated in its consumer business which accounted for 69 percent of its income, with its business and wholesale divisions contributing 17 percent and 14 percent respectively.

Its EBITDA for the period was 55.8 million which was a 46 percent increase over the previous corresponding half for 2025.

Its customer base grew 21 percent over the previous corresponding to reach 805,000 ahead of the acquisition, with 74,000 services being added in the half across all its divisions.

Superloop said its share of NBN services had reached seven percent and that it had a 15.1 percent share of services faster than 500Mbps.