Exa Infrastructure is to acquire subsea cable operator Aqua Comms.

The network firm announced today (January 17) that it has signed binding agreements to acquire Aqua Comms from D9.

The company, owned by investment firm I Squared Capital, didn't reveal financial terms.

Aqua Comms was previously backed by UK infrastructure fund Digital 9 Infrastructure, which is currently in the process of winding down and selling off its assets. D9 acquired Aqua in 2021.

Ireland-based Aqua Comms operates submarine cable systems and supplies fiber pairs, spectrum, and wholesale network capacity to the global content, cloud, carrier & enterprise markets.

The company owns and operates 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 acquisition of Aqua Comms demonstrates Exa Infrastructure’s commitment to build a modern and diverse Transatlantic platform to fully serve AI, cloud, and content demand, now and in the future. The combination will offer our customers more routes, more capacity, and increased diversity, all on a scaled platform” said Jim Fagan, chief executive of Exa Infrastructure. 

Exa said the planned acquisition is expected to take around a year to complete, and will be subject to customary closing conditions.

Exa operates more than 150,000km of digital infrastructure across 37 countries, including 20 cable landing stations that provide critical connectivity to subsea systems.

Akur Capital and RBC Capital Markets are acting as financial advisors to EXA Infrastructure, while Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison are serving as legal M&A advisors to EXA Infrastructure.

Goldman Sachs is serving as financial advisor to D9, while Shoosmiths is serving as legal advisor to D9.

D9 has only been in operation for four years. In March 2021, investment firm Triple Point raised £300 million ($365m) from an IPO through D9, with plans to acquire a number of digital infrastructure firms.

However, D9 announced in February of last year that it had decided to wind down its operations and sell off its assets following a strategic review.

In October, the company appointed InfraRed Capital Partners as its new investment manager to oversee the company’s wind-down, months after D9 sold its European data center firm Verne to Ardian.