The Spanish investment firm that acquired an 80 per cent shareholding in National Broadband Ireland (NBI) last year also became the largest shareholder in a separate but related commercial company called X3T Broadband, new documents show.

A fund managed by Madrid-based Asterion Industrial Partners became the majority investor in the NBI group of companies, contracted to deliver the state-subsidised National Broadband Plan to connect every rural home and business in Ireland, after it bought out initial US backers Oak Hill Advisors (OHA) and Twin Point Capital.

Asterion also acquired the stakes of NBI’s early minority investors Bruno Ducharme of Canada and Brian Thompson in the US.

As revealed by The Currency last December, NBI chairman David McCourt, through his company Granahan McCourt and his continuing partner in NBI, Tetrad Corporation, then created a new group of Irish companies called X3T, with backing from the same investors who had initially financed NBI as it got the National Broadband Contract over the line. 

Click on the image to download the full-size corporate map.

X3T was established to sell software and services enabling telecommunications operators to manage open-access networks, such as the one being deployed under the National Broadband Plan, which let various service providers compete across shared infrastructure.

NBI told The Currency at the time that X3T would not acquire the software developed to manage the subsidised Irish network, which would remain its property. NBI chief executive Peter Hendrick added that X3T would offer jobs to engineers who had completed the development of those systems for NBI and create a “centre of excellence” in Ireland to commercialise the technology overseas.

As detailed at the time, X3T received an initial €5 million round of equity investment led by OHA and backed by Twin Point, Thompson and Ducharme in similar proportions to the investments they had just sold out of NBI. McCourt became chairman of the new company and retained a minority ultimate shareholding through Granahan McCourt, alongside Tetrad.

Hendrick said at the time that Asterion, too, had committed investment to X3T.

New company information filed last week now shows that the Spanish firm contributed an additional €3.5 million as early as November 9 last year. This gave Asterion a 40 per cent stake in X3T Broadband, according to share issuances reported to date. 

Separately, the UK holding companies used by Asterion to invest in X3T raised new equity this summer, with shares allotted as recently as July 14. It has not yet been reported whether any of these funds will translate into fresh investment in NBI or X3T in Ireland.

Following early transactions for consultancy services supplied by NBI to X3T, and recruitment of X3T employees on job descriptions including supplying outsourced services to NBI, there continues to be day-to-day interaction between the two McCourt-chaired companies – in addition to the fact that they now have the same largest shareholder in Asterion.

A live job offer for a software developer at NBI, opened through recruitment consultants Morgan McKinley on May 30, lists key responsibilities including “work with all X3T teams”. Some staff have transferred from NBI to X3T in recent months, according to their LinkedIn profile. 

X3T, meanwhile, posted five new job openings to the professional social network in the past two weeks alone – two in Ireland and three in London.