EXA Infrastructure Completes the Acquisition of Aqua Comms for $46 million

On the last day of 2025, EXA Infrastructure announced the completion of its long-running acquisition of Aqua Comms from Digital 9 Infrastructure plc (D9), strengthening its Transatlantic and intra-European connectivity network. The final net consideration of the transaction is £34.0 million (approximately US$46 million).

EXA Infrastructure, a London-based portfolio company of I Squared Capital - a leading independent global infrastructure investor - already operates over 160,000km of digital infrastructure across 37 countries, including seven Transatlantic routes and 22 cable landing stations across North America and Europe.

Aqua Comms is an Ireland-based service provider specialising in operating submarine cable systems and supplying fibre pairs, spectrum and wholesale network capacity to the global content, cloud, carrier & enterprise markets.  It is the owner/operator of America Europe Connect-1 (AEC-1), America Europe Connect-2 (AEC-2), CeltixConnect-1 (CC-1) and CeltixConnect-2 (CC-2) and is part of a consortium that owns/operates the Amitié cable system (AEC-3).

The addition of Aqua Comms’ network brings greater route diversity and more critical links between the U.S., Ireland, and mainland Europe. Its deep operational expertise alongside a materially expanded infrastructure footprint means EXA Infrastructure is equipped to fully serve the AI, Cloud, and Content demands of customers.

According to the D9's report to the London Stock Exchange on 31 December 2025, D9 completed the divestment of its Atlantic and Irish Sea subsea fibre business — Aqua Comms — for a final net consideration of £34.0 million, equivalently US$45.9918 million per the exchange rate of 1.3527 USD/GBP traded on 30 December 2025. Completion follows the satisfaction of all closing conditions under the sale and purchase agreement.

The final net consideration is £1.6 million higher than the £32.4 million valuation of Aqua Comms reported in the company's 30 June 2025 interim report. As disclosed in the interim report, the June 2025 valuation of Aqua Comms reflected the update of the completion account mechanism as well as revised USD/GBP foreign exchange rate at that date.

D9 intends to return proceeds, net of anticipated future working capital needs (being approximately a third of the proceeds), to shareholders by way of a pro‑rata compulsory capital redemption, which is expected to facilitate the most efficient and cost-effective return of the proceeds to shareholders.

Established in early 2021 by investment firm Triple Point, D9 raised £300 million ($365m) from an IPO on the London Stock Exchange in March 2021, and acquired Aqua Comms for £160m (approximately US$215m) in April 2021, and decided in July 2021 to invest over £50 million (US$69.5 million) into the development of the Europe Middle-East India Connect 1 (EMIC-1),  one fibre pair between India and Europe on the 2Africa cable system. 

In January 2025, D9 reported to the London Stock Exchange to divest Aqua Comms for net proceeds of $48m (c.£40m). Prior to the divestment of Aqua Comms, D9 announced on 31 December 2024 the divestment of its interests in the EMIC-1 project for $42m (c. £33m) consideration. The EMIC-1 transaction was completed in May 2025 for a final consideration of US$43m (c. £32m), net of the US$2.6m previously announced transaction costs.