The United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York approved the GTT Communications’ Prepackaged Plan.
GTT said the Prepackaged Plan, combined with the recently completed infrastructure division sale, will reduce its debt by approximately $2.8 billion. GTT expects to emerge from the chapter 11 process following receipt of the necessary regulatory approvals for the restructuring.
Ernie Ortega, Chief Executive Officer of GTT, said, “With the court approval now behind us we are well positioned with the resources we need to push forward with our long-term growth plan. We are grateful for the immense support we have received from our debtholders, customers, employees, vendors and other partners during this process.”
GTT has announced three leadership appointments.
- Donna Granato has been named Chief Financial Officer after serving in an interim capacity for approximately one year.
- Jim Delis has been appointed Division President for Americas. He has over two decades of industry leadership experience at companies that include AT&T Wireless, XO Communications, Time Warner Cable, and most recently, TPx Communications.
- Lisa Brown has been named Chief Marketing Officer. She joined GTT in 2015 and has held senior leadership roles in marketing and sales operations in the communications, data center and managed cloud markets.
Ortega said, “I am thrilled to announce these leadership team appointments. Donna, Lisa and their respective teams have done a remarkable job to date, and I am thankful for their continued leadership. It is also a pleasure to welcome Jim to GTT, and I look forward to his contributions as an industry veteran. I have tremendous confidence in our leadership team as we work together to transform the Company, execute our strategy and deliver for our customers.”
GTT sells infrastructure division for $2.15 billion
GTT Communications will sell its infrastructure division to I Squared Capital, an independent global infrastructure investment firm, for $2.15 billion.
- The infrastructure division sale consists of selected network and data center assets accumulated from several GTT acquisitions, including Interoute, Hibernia, and KPN International, that comprise:
- A 103,000 route kilometer fiber network with over 400 points of presence, spanning 31 metro areas and interconnecting 103 cities across Europe and North America.
- Three transatlantic subsea cables, including GTT Express, the lowest latency route between Europe and North America.
- Fourteen Tier 3 data centers and over 100 colocation facilities.
- Offering a full suite of telecom and data infrastructure solutions to marquee clients.
Gautam Bhandari, managing partner at I Squared Capital stated, “Now more than ever, digital infrastructure is an essential asset class as societies across the globe rely heavily on high-speed digital bandwidth. This acquisition builds upon I Squared Capital’s overarching global digital infrastructure strategy and experience with complex carve-outs to expand the reach of our platforms across Asia, Europe and North America.”
GTT names Ernie Ortega as interim CEO
GTT Communications named Ernie Ortega as interim CEO while the board continues its search for a permanent CEO. Ortega currently serves as GTT’s Chief Revenue Office. GTT’s Board of Directors also announced that Don MacNeil has joined the GTT leadership team as chief operating officer (COO). Mr. MacNeil will lead GTT’s network operations, service delivery, assurance and vendor management teams, as well as GTT’s product organization. “I am delighted…