Brookfield Infrastructure makes another investment in Data Infrastructure
Owner of energy and infrastructure assets, Brookfield Infrastructure Corp. (BIPC) continues to expand its presence in the data infrastructure market by acquiring another help in Europe. Brookfield Infrastructure and DigitalBridge Group acquired a 51% stake in the mobile tower operator GD Towers, owned by the telecommunications company Deutsche Telekom. Under the agreement, Deutsche Telekom will retain a minority stake of 49%. Currently, GD Towers operates more than 40,000 cell towers, of which 33,000 are in Germany and another 7,000 in Austria.
The anchor tenant of these towers is Deutsche Telecom. The partnership of such large enterprises will make it possible to use the competence of Deutsche Telekom as one of the leading communication providers and DigitalBridge’s experience in the field of digital infrastructure to support the development of GD Towers against the background of growing demand for data transmission in Europe. Partners will need to invest in 5G network deployment and industry consolidation. Note that this is not the first Brookfield Infrastructure project in the field of data infrastructure. The company has previously invested in telecommunications towers in India, France, New Zealand, and the UK, fiber optic networks in France, Brazil, and New Zealand, as well as in more than 50 data centers worldwide.
Recently, it an investment of $200 million in the privatization of the Australian company Uniti Group, which provides fiber-optic services. Investments in data infrastructure allow Brookfield Infrastructure to generate stable cash flow supported by long-term contracts. But in addition, these investments will enable the company to become a beneficiary of the growing data consumption worldwide. According to the forecast, by 2025, the growth will be about 30% per year. Brookfield Infrastructure is currently investing in data infrastructure projects, which bring the company 12-15% profit. These investments will significantly contribute to the dividend payment rise. Should note that Brookfield Infrastructure aims to increase its high-yield prices by 5-9% per year. Currently, the yield of the company’s securities is 3.4%, which is twice the yield of the S&P 500.
