City Fibre appoints Goldman Sachs’ senior partner Simon Holden as COO

Goldman Sachs has strengthened its hold on UK telecoms company City Fibre after announcing one of its senior partners will become the firm's new chief operating officer.

Simon Holden will take up the newly created role on City Fibre's board from 1 March having worked as a partner at Goldman for 18 years.

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He will work alongside the business's founder and chief executive, Greg Mesch, as the company looks to move forward with plans to connect 5m homes to full fibre networks in a £2.5bn development.

Holdman was previously the global chief operating officer for Goldman's investment banking division as well as the global head of its telecoms division among other senior roles.

“The board and executive team are delighted to have appointed Simon,” said boss Mesch. “His telecoms expertise coupled with the breadth of his business experience will prove invaluable at this transformative stage in City Fibre’s growth as we scale our business to reach at least 20% of the UK market.”

Goldman Sachs acquired a stake in City Fibre last year after purchasing the company in a joint £538m deal with Antin Infrastructure, through its West Street Infrastructure fund, and committed to the £2.5bn plan.

City Fibre is hoping to build an alternative network covering 20 per cent of the country and compete with BT's Openreach and Virgin Media.

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It has partnered with Vodafone and hopes to be one of the first companies to build full fibre networks in parts of the UK still connect by copper.

“This is a pivotal moment for the UK fibre market,” Holden said. “As a service-based economy, the UK is reliant on the internet and ensuring access to the finest digital infrastructure possible is critical to its ability to compete and succeed on the world stage.”