Investment trust insider on digital infrastructure – James Carthew: Exciting growth of digital infrastructure
One of the first investment companies to launch in 2021 was Cordiant Digital Infrastructure (CORD). Its £370m initial public offering (IPO), coming soon after the £243m flotation of VH Global Sustainable Energy Opportunities (GSEO), set the scene for a bumper year of fundraising for the sector. CORD was soon followed by the £300m IPO of Digital 9 Infrastructure (DGI9) and, in November, we saw the £400m listing of Pantheon Infrastructure (PINT), which also has plans to have some exposure to the digital infrastructure sector.
The enthusiasm with which investors have embraced this subsector is remarkable. Both CORD and DGI9 are listed on the specialist funds segment, which reduces their appeal for individual investors. However, they have expanded rapidly since launch, helped in CORD’s case by the exercise of most of its subscription shares. PINT adopted a similar capital structure at launch – subscription shares issued alongside ordinary shares bought in the IPO on a one-for-five basis – it will be interesting to see if it can turn those into cash as well.
CORD’s first investment was the £305.9m purchase of České Radiokomunikace. This Czech Republic business owns 660 mobile telecoms/broadcast towers, data centres, a 3,700km network of fibre-optic cables and a national microwave wireless network mainly used by utilities for remote meter reading but with applications across the ‘internet of things’.
The different elements to the business, the breadth of… read more here