28 Apr 2011

Fund-raising charge is on for trans-Pacific cable

8:45 am on 28 April 2011

The company behind a $US400 million high-speed trans-Pacific internet cable has appointed ANZ, Credit Suisse and First New Zealand Capital to lead its fund-raising efforts.

Pacific Fibre, whose backers include Trade Me creator Sam Morgan, Warehouse founder Stephen Tindall and Xero's Rod Drury, last month released a tender to selected submarine cable layers to build the network between Australia, New Zealand and the United States.

It is having to raise the money for the project alone, following the lapse of a memorandum of understanding with Hong Kong-based PacNet.