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Eastern Light continues to expand its Nordic dark fiber infrastructure. To meet rising demand on its Stockholm (Equinix SK2) – Helsinki subsea system (“SF-I”), the shortest existing fiber route between the two capitals, the company has established a new south‑bound sea cable in eastern Helsinki, connecting directly to Telia/Arelion’s major communications hub at Iso Roobertinkatu 21.

Eastern Light is already present in the Finnish capital through its sites at Kiviaidankatu 2 and Equinix HE6, and this new connection further strengthens its position as an independent provider of high‑capacity, low‑latency fiber routes across the region.

“This is an important step for us and for our customers,” said Mikael Vesterlund, COO at Eastern Light. “By adding this link, we can offer more customers a fully redundant route between the capitals of Sweden and Finland, ensuring even greater availability, resilience, and flexibility — not only for long-haul connectivity but also for metro diversity within the region.”

The new connection is part of Eastern Light’s long‑term initiative “Nordic Link” — a network of unique, express dark‑fiber routes interconnecting the largest data centers across the Nordics, designed to deliver the performance and scalability required for tomorrow’s data‑driven world.

The Swedish fiber infrastructure company Eastern Light – which plans to connect Sweden, the Nordic region and Europe via powerful long-haul infrastructure for dark fiber – has had financing needs that the previous board and management have not been able to solve for a long time. To ensure the company’s long-term development, financing and continued operations, as well as security for employees, customers and suppliers, the creditor P Capital Partners assessed on the 5th of November 2024 that it was necessary to take over responsibility for Eastern Light. To strengthen the company’s operational strength, P Capital Partners has entered into agreements with Lazarus Holding AB and Lazarus Equity Partners AB, which specialize in supporting companies in need of change management. The agreement means that Lazarus has taken over the ownership of Eastern Light Holding AB and Eastern Light Fiber 1 AB. By combining access to capital with operational experience, the business is positioned for long-term resilience, while at the same time safeguarding jobs and ensuring high-quality delivery for both current and future customers.

Eastern Light has been operating a fiber route between Stockholm and Helsinki since 2019. The company’s customers include some of the largest digital players in the world. Since P Capital Partners entered into a loan financing agreement with Eastern Light in 2021, financing has been conditional on Eastern Light increasing its equity to secure operations and construction of planned fiber routes. Despite explicit agreements, the previous board and management have not been able to solve this, and the situation resulted in a need for additional capital to secure existing operations and to complete the next fiber section. P Capital Partners acted on November 5th to ensure the long-term operation of the business and has funding available to complete the next fiber route, given satisfactory customer interest.

With secured financing and new owners, Eastern Light is positioned to become one of the leading providers of fiber infrastructure in Northern Europe. The focus is now on completing the next fiber route to provide global players, as well as local operators, with the capacity and security required to continue developing the Nordic market for data centers and global communications, says Petra Elväng, Managing Director at P Capital Partners.

The new group management consists of Chairman of the Board and acting CEO Runar Nilsen, newly appointed COO Mikael Vesterlund and CFO Emma Nilsson. Claes Jonson from Lazarus has been appointed as a board member of Eastern Light.

For more information, please contact:

Runar Nilsen, Chairman of the Board and acting CEO of Eastern Light, runar.nilsen@easternlight.se