HICL Infrastructure (HICL ), the UK’s largest listed social infrastructure fund, has pulled out of a deal to buy a 55% stake in French rural broadband provider ASTiM SAS.

In a short statement, the £3.3bn operator of toll roads, hospitals and offshore wind transmission links, said ‘certain conditions’ related to the transaction had not been fulfilled, and that HICL and DIF Capital Partners of The Netherlands, the seller, had ended the process.

Announced last May the acquisition was HICL’s first fibre broadband investment. It was expected to cost around £65m, or 2% of net asset value (NAV), and complete in the third quarter.

Stifel analyst Iain Scouller said that, given the delay, ‘there was clearly something wrong’, and he expected there had been a problem getting all the third-party consents.

HICL said it remained ‘on track’ to complete the much larger acquisition of Texas Nevada Transmission by 31 March. Announced in September, the investment is HICL’s fifth in North America, accounting for 6% of NAV and paid from its £400m credit facility. It also has an extra £330m available in an ‘accordion’ facility for an investment pipeline it said was ‘attractive’.

HICL shares eased a penny to 165p. Having recovered from a sharp fall in the bond mayhem sparked by last September’s mini-Budget, they trade in line with analysts’ latest estimate of NAV per share. Including dividends, the 5%-yielder has generated a total return of 46.5% over five years.