Inspiratia InfraTech Takeouts

Information technology and data provide the backbone for infratech
innovations, as underlying digital assets – broadband, data centres and 5G –
are increasingly embraced as essential infrastructure.
'Fibre is the
future'
The UK broadband market has been particularly active in the past 12 months,
with a wave of infrastructure players – Amber, Aviva and Infracapital – striking
deals. In perhaps the most significant yet, the UK's largest alternative network
provider, CityFibre, is being acquired by Antin and Goldman Sachs funds.
"Over the last few years you've seen more and more acceptance that fibre is
the future and that it can be thought of as infrastructure," said Oliver Bradley,
corporate finance director at CityFibre.
The uptick in investing has coincided with the launch of the government's Digital
Infrastructure Investment Fund (DIIF) last summer. With fibre-to-the-premises
connectivity in the UK falling behind other European countries due to years of
underinvestment, the DIIF has helped attract new capital.
"You can argue that the government has achieved its policy objectives already
because the amount of focus on the sector, the amount of transactions that have
happened. The capital is there – the DIIF is complementing and doubling the
firepower available," said John Mayhew, head of infrastructure finance at M&G
Investments, which is mandated as a fund manager under the DIIF initiative.
The UK competitive landscape is still in flux, and the potential opportunity for
investors is vast – experts estimate capex needs for the nationwide fibre rollout
to be in the tens of billions of pounds.
While funding and regulatory schemes vary in each country, the race is on
to build broadband networks across Europe. The French PPP programme, for
instance, has notably quickly become a highly competitive financing target.
Once broadband is an established infrastructure asset, other digital
technologies such as 5G are poised to follow suit. These technologies will
support everything in the infratech sector – from BIM software and drone
mapping for construction, to the Internet of Things and smart roads that will
boost asset management capabilities.
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