Seabras-1 submarine cable is a new, fully operational, 10,500 km fiber optic cable which provides the first direct route between São Paulo and New York. Seabras-1 has been ready for operation as of September 8th, 2017.
Seabras-1 cable lands at Avon-by-the-Sea beach, New Jersey. Tata Communicatons offers a collocation space and cable landing facilities in its cable landing station at 1400 Wall Church Rd, Wall Township, New Jersey under long-term leasing and IRU agreements. In Brazil, Seabras-1 cable lands at Praia Grande. All backhaul and metro fiber from its Praia Grande landing station into metro São Paulo is underground for improved quality of service.
Seabras-1 cable system consists of 6 fiber pairs, with a design capacity of 72 Tbps or 12Tbps per fiber pair. In a trial using 8QAM with the Infinera XTS-3300, it verified up to 18.2Tbps on one of Seabras-1 fiber pairs.
Seabras-1 delivers the lowest latency route between Nasdaq, 1400 Federal in Carteret, New Jersey and Brazil Stock Exchange, B3 in São Paulo, with an actual measured latency of 105.05ms RTD between the exchange data centers.
Seabras-1 is a private cable, owned and constructed by Seabras Group and its affiliates including Seabras 1 Bermuda Ltd, Seabras 1 USA LLC, Seabras 1 Brasil Ltda. and Seabras 1 Holdings Brasil Ltda..
Through a management agreement, Seaborn Networks operates the Seabras-1 cable system and related business. Seaborn Networks owns 42% shares of Seabras Group.
The total project financing for the Seabras-1 cable system is more than US$520million. Alcatel-Lucent Sumarine Networks (ASN) was selected as the turn-key supplier.
In March 2014, Natixis, a major French bank, offered a fully underwritten US$290 million senior secured project financing debt for the Seabras-1 cable project. The total project debt was actually US$267 million provided by Natixis, Banco Santander, Commerzbank and Intesa Sanpaolo, backed by the French export credit agency Compagnie Française d’Assurance pour le Commerce Extérieur (COFACE). Natixis acted as sole Structuring Bank, Underwriter, and Mandated Lead Arranger for the senior debt facilities. Natixis also acted as Agent for COFACE.
Partners Group, a Switzerland-based private markets investment manager, provided equity financing for the Seabras-1 cable project and acquired in aggregate an approximate 51.17% indirect economic interest in Seabras Group and its affiliates. Natixis acted as exclusive Equity Advisor for the equity-raising process.
In December 2017, TI Sparkle announced a long-term investment of over US$300 million for three fiber pairs out of the total six pairs of Seabras-1 cable system after its ready for service. There were announcements saying the significant investments on the Seabras-1 cable system by Microsoft and Tata Communications
On December 22, 2019, owners of the Seabras-1 cable system, Seabras 1 Bermuda Ltd (Seabras Bermuda) and Seabras 1 USA LLC (Seabras US), filed voluntary petitions for relief under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code.
In July 2020, Seabras and its subsidiaries emerged from its Chapter 11 filing with a new company ownership structure and the appointments of a new CEO and CFO for Seaborn Networks.