TMT M&A Forum USA 2022

Who will lead investment in digital infrastructure ?

Finance heads, investment bankers and investors assess evolving trends in global debt and equity markets.

• Acquisition, LBO and capex financing: how are pricing and conditions changing?
• Scaling up: how can high growth and mid-cap companies increase access to capital?
• How have digital infrastructure trends and global changes caused financing strategies to evolve over the past 12 months?
• Greenfield investments: where are the opportunities to put financing to work?
• Equity Capital Markets – what’s the 2023 outlook?

Cloud communications continue to change how enterprises collaborate internally and interact with their customers. As businesses and customers alike demand seamless, converged communications platforms, how are operators reacting to the change? How is the investment community financing the necessary growth?• Assessing the market: emerging developments in cloud comms M&A and financing.

• Is there enough capacity to support demand and what does the next three to five years look like?
• Growth and investment – Build your own network vs looking for support from providers.
• How is the relationship between cloud cos and investors changing?
• What are the prospects for consolidation in the market?
• How have the valuations benchmarks shifted over the past 24 months? And what stage is next?

With access to high-speed internet connectivity increasingly essential, industry leaders examine innovative business strategies and the recent influx of capital in the space as operators and investors strive to meet the needs of rural customers that previously were unable to connect.

• Reaching the remote pockets: where are the greatest opportunities for rural broadband investment in the US?
• Which players are spearheading the changing face of rural US broadband?  
• Where are current investment cycles at for rural fiber companies?
• RDOF: who is best placed to connect rural America? 
• Where should potential investors look: buying or building?
• With such an abundance of fiber companies currently being bought and sold, how do potential investors locate the highest quality management teams?

Operator CEOs and key investment firms assess strategies for the US wireless infrastructure market, focusing on the next wave of opportunities and industry changes posed by 5G, fiber, and datacentre in relation to the towers market.

• Investing in the next phase of growth: The value of moving into higher growth markets of fiber, small cell, 5G, datacenters and edge computing?
• Growth opportunities presented by new entrants and other emerging MNOs.
• Partnerships between public and private operators – working with MNOs on the next phase of outsourcing, partnerships, acquisitions, and network rollout.
• Financing for build vs buy – Which financing options are available for new growth opportunities and M&A?
• Critical Importance of macro towers in network evolution.
• As tower companies increasingly weigh into the datacenter industry, how much opportunity is there for growth in the vertical? 

As valuation expectations and competition for digital infrastructure assets in mature markets intensifies, investors seek geographical avenues with high-growth prospects to deploy capital. Key operators, investors and advisers discuss the market outlook for Latin America.

• Where will the next wave of dealmaking and investment opportunities be in Latin American digital infra?
• How are new entrants differentiating in an increasingly competitive region? 
• Which subsectors and specific markets offer most opportunity and ROI?
• What are the challenges and regulatory headwinds of transacting in the region and how are buyers and sellers navigating them?

Advisers, investors, and executives discuss the latest wave of M&A strategies and investment opportunities in the digital infrastructure and services space.

• How have the roles of buyers and sellers and advisers adapted over the past 24 months?
• Evolutions in deal origination, relationship establishment, and business hold periods
• How are strategies and investment in the digital infrastructure and services space set to change post-pandemic?
• What is the impact of current valuations and multiples on investment strategies?
• Which markets and countries still offer deal opportunities? 

How has greenfield financing developed over the past 18 months+ to meet the data and investment demand?

• How are soaring valuations impacting the dealmaking process?
• What impact are green initiatives having on datacentre investments and financings?
• What does the decreasing amount of public data center peers mean for the industry? 
• What impact is edge computing having on data center investments?
• How have those looking/making investments in the data center space altered the face of the vertical? 
• With current valuations, where and how can investors and operators deploy capital effectively? 

With attention increasingly turning on the inbuilding vertical, operators and investors discuss how to capitalise off the incoming wave of growth.  

• How is investment appetite for small cells changing? Where are the opportunities?
• Are current financing models for densification sufficient for a national 5G program?
• How would the financing of small cells differ from traditional investment in macro cells? 
• What plans are there to improve cooperation with municipalities and real estate owners?

Leaders from UCaaS and Managed Networking companies explore how to build and scale market leading platforms, as investment interest in the sector continues to soar.

• How much growth potential is there to UCaaS and Managed Networking businesses and who is best place to capture it?
• How are traditional US-focused players transforming their businesses to cater to new geographies?
• Where are the M&A opportunities and how will the consolidation of the broader infra and services sector affect strategy?
• How will UCaaS companies change the face of traditional telecom operators?

Insights and perspectives on the generational market opportunity for service providers to capitalize on demand for Fiber-to-the-X, including:

• Assessing growth strategies for FTTx: M&A, roll-ups, and new build.
• Where are the best opportunities in FTTP and FTTH in 2022.
• How to leverage the overbuild growth opportunity.
• What are the best financing options and how is investment criteria changing?
• Who is leading the land grab for the next 50 million FTTH passings in the United States?
• Best practices and success factors learned from the leading independent FTTx operators
• Unit economics and valuation dynamics behind high-growth FTTx platform companies