SUBCO
Founded by industry leader Bevan Slattery, SUBCO has developed some of the world’s most innovative submarine cable networks. SUBCO has a strong record of developing, owning and operating large-scale submarine infrastructure, which has provided critical digital gateways to Asia, the Middle East Europe and Africa.
Need
To upgrade the capacity of its Indigo network, which connects Australia to Singapore, and the purchase of network capacity between Oman and Europe, SUBCO needed additional finance.
Solution
We provided SUBCO with a finance solution to support the upgrade of its equipment on both the Sydney to Perth, and Perth to Singapore segments of the Indigo network, as well as purchase additional network capacity between Oman and Europe.
Founded by Bevan Slattery, SUBCO was established to forge connections between Australian cities and Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Europe by building and operating submarine cables. Over the last five years, the company has developed a strong portfolio of submarine infrastructure, and with the recent SMAP cable project, will be approaching $750m of investment.
These include the Indigo system, which connects Sydney to Singapore via Perth, and OAC, the Perth to Oman cable, as well as its latest project, SMAP, named after the four Australian cities it connects (Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth). SMAP is Australia’s first hyperscale cable.
SUBCO's unique offering lies in its ability to construct independent world-class submarine cables, attracting customers who need access to advanced infrastructure. The new hyperscale cable carries a capacity of about 400 terabits plus per second, revolutionising connectivity.
“Export Finance Australia is really focused on the export element – it could see the benefits of what we do beyond a purely financial transaction to the broader economic benefit to Australia.”
Bevan Slattery
Founder and Co-CEO, SUBCO
Improving global reach
Submarine cables are crucial for global internet connectivity, supporting everything from telecommunications to data transfer for businesses and governments.
The success of SUBCO’s Indigo network meant that it needed to upgrade capacity through adding more equipment to both the Sydney to Perth and Perth to Singapore segments of its cable. To support the upgrade, SUBCO started a conversation with our team to explore options for finance.
“In our discussions with Export Finance Australia, more broadly and looking at all the things that we're doing, they really encouraged us to see how they could assist and help with that upgrade path," Bevan said.
We were able to provide SUBCO with the financing it needed to be able to install the extra equipment – a process which Bevan said was simple and straightforward.
“We're exporting a capability and connectivity that's used to attract major business into Australia,” Bevan highlighted. “Some of our major partners are big global carriers but often they're the hyperscalers and major cloud operators.”
“Having a partner that’s completely aligned to the same outcomes, beyond the commercial benefits, made it a really easy process and the business alignment was really strong.”
Bevan highlighted that our team really understood the export and economic benefits of SUBCO's work in connecting Australia to the rest of the world.
"For SUBCO, having Export Finance Australia in our corner is fantastic because they understand and encourage what we do. And for me, it was a refreshing moment to have a partner that's like-minded in that kind of outcome."
“The support from Export Finance Australia was excellent, and the fact that it is Government backed, gives a lot of comfort from a sovereign standpoint – there’s that alignment into the future.”
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