Windstream Offloads Minnesota, Nebraska Fiber Assets

Windstream has sold fiber assets in Minnesota to Arvig Enterprises, a Minnesota-based provider of telecommunications and broadband services, in an all-cash transaction valued at $49.5 million.

Windstream also has entered an agreement to sell fiber assets in Nebraska to Arvig for $11 million. The Nebraska sale is expected to close in the first quarter of 2019.

As part of the transactions, Windstream will establish a fiber network relationship with Arvig, allowing it to use the assets to continue to sell its products and services in Minnesota and Nebraska.

Windstream’s Bob Gunderman

“These transactions monetize latent dark fiber assets in Minnesota and Nebraska, lower capital requirements in each state and allow us to focus on our core network offerings with minimal change to our operations going forward,” said said Bob Gunderman, Windstream’s chief financial officer and treasurer. “The structure also sets a road map for future fiber monetization across our footprint.”

David Arvig, Arvig’s vice president and chief operating officer, said expanding his company’s broadband footprint is “core to our strategic priorities and bolsters our fiber assets throughout Minnesota and across the Midwest.” Arvig has a 10,500-mile fiber network throughout the state of Minnesota and provides services to telecommunications companies, wireless carriers and 46,000 internet customers in more than half of Minnesota’s counties.

“The additional Nebraska transaction will provide a critical link for our network beyond Minnesota supporting our continued growth throughout the region,” he said.

During Windstream’s third-quarter 2018 earnings call last month, Gunderson said his company continues to “stay active in discussions regarding our dark fiber assets and we continue to believe that we have between $100 million and $200 million of value in the remaining unutilized dark fiber.”