Kirkland Advises CBRE’s Gateway Fiber on Inaugural Fiber Network Securitization
Kirkland & Ellis advised Gateway Fiber, a broadband infrastructure and services provider owned by CBRE, on the inaugural securitization of its fiber network assets through GW Issuer, LLC’s $333.02 million offering of secured fiber network revenue notes, Series 2026-1, comprising $212.89 million of Class A-2 notes, $36.53 million of Class B notes and $83.6 million of Class C notes, together with a $7.5 million Class A-1-L liquidity funding note. The Class A-2 and Class A-1-L notes received expected ratings of A-, and the Class B notes received an expected rating of BBB-.
The liquidity funding note, undrawn at closing, provides liquidity support without negative carry. The master trust also accommodates future series of notes and the addition of new networks, giving Gateway a permanent, programmatic platform to finance its continued buildout.
The Kirkland team included structured finance lawyers Kelly Mellecker, Tad Bardenwerper, Brandon Karas, Emma Tall, Betsy Morris and Alissa Carbonara; corporate lawyers Darren Fernandez, Ethan Heben and Kyle Anderson; tax lawyers Jon Nelsen, Mike Beinus, Richard Husseini and Ben Schreiner; investment funds ERISA lawyers Joe Lifsics and Christine Matott; litigation lawyer Nick Niles; and investment funds regulatory lawyer Felix Jen.
