Ada Cerne leads the Digital Infrastructure Investment Strategy of BRIDGE, an independent capital raised Infrastructure Debt platform with a strong track record and valued AUM of over €5.0+billion. Cerne joined BRIDGE in 2014 shortly after inception of the first vintage and states that the team was among the first to finance infrastructure assets in sectors such as renewable energy, green mobility, social infrastructure, the broader energy efficiency and transition, the decarbonisation of utilities and, of course, digital infrastructure, as it was a conviction that such sectors were a key part of the infrastructure play. She notes that digital infrastructure now accounts for more than 20% of BRIDGE’s investments.
Cerne says that the huge expansion in fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) network deployment in Europe during the last few years has led to some overexposure to this segment amongst European banks and institutional investors. Now, the growth in digital infrastructure debt financings will come from data centres (DC) and tower portfolios as these institutions try to rebalance their digital exposure. DC-related financings range from large, pan-European DC portfolio refinancings to niche transactions for the financing of a single asset. The offtakers range from global hyperscalers to SMEs in the case of edge DCs, hence providing a risk/reward spectrum for both conservative and yield-seeking investors.
According to Cerne, an ongoing trend in the sector will be the spin-offs of infrastructure assets. Mobile operators have spunoff tower portfolios for decades now and, more recently, fixedline operators have divested fibre networks. She indicates that new types of spin-offs are creating financeable assets, such as the spin-off of switches and local exchanges from operators’ fixed line networks as well as spin-offs of active equipment, located in the towers, from mobile operators. Cerne says that, in the towers sector, land consolidators are emerging to acquire land plots where towers are located and then benefitting from the long-term leases with tower operators.
Cerne notes that the COVID-19 pandemic brought the importance of digital connectivity to the forefront of European economies’ investment programmes. The first lock down in 2020 resulted in the isolation of entire communities which did not have fast and reliable connectivity as adults were unable to work from home and students of all ages could not participate in online education. She stated, “suddenly, the much talked about “digital divide” was no longer the fancy heading of specialist telecoms journals, but a social issue to be prioritised”.
Despite the recent return to pre-Covid routines, Cerne believes that Governments’ focus on digital connectivity will continue. She says, “It is now clear that the vital role of the digital sector to society can no longer be ignored and BRIDGE is proud to have anticipated the need from the inception of the platform and to be a significant debt investor in its growth”.
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