TMT M&A Forum USA 2023

DIGITAL INFRASTRUCTURE M&A AND INVESTMENT STRATEGIES

Finance leaders, investors, and investment bankers will explore the current challenges and opportunities in funding TMT. Join us to gain insights into attracting investment, navigating the market and leveraging partnerships to fuel innovation in the rapidly evolving sector.  

• 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 are capital constraints impacting the market?  
• 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 2024 outlook? 

Delve into the world of Fiber-to-the-X M&A during this breakout panel. Valuable perspectives on the market opportunities for service providers to capitalise on the demand for FTTX will be uncovered. Join us for discussion into the viability of build-out initiatives, potential consolidation opportunities and understanding the critical factors behind successful FTTX M&A deals.  

• Assessing growth strategies for FTTX: M&A, roll-ups, and new build.  
•  Where are the best opportunities in FTTX in 2023/24?  
• How to leverage the overbuild growth opportunity.  
• What are the best financing options and how is investment criteria changing?  
• Exploring best practices and success factors learned from the leading independent FTTX operators  
• Analysing unit economics and valuation dynamics behind high-growth FTTX platform companies 

Unravel the opportunities in the data center industry during this breakout panel. Investors and data center operators will delve into the intricacies of data center investment and explore various growth models that propel success: 

• How are soaring valuations impacting the dealmaking process?  
• What impact are green initiatives having on data center 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? 

Join us for a breakout panel in which TowerCo leaders will unveil the business models driving next-generation connectivity. This session will expand upon strategies for the US wireless infrastructure market, focusing on the next wave of opportunities and industry changes posed by 5G, fiber, and data centers 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, data centers 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?  
• As tower companies increasingly weigh into the data center industry, how much opportunity is there for growth in the vertical?  

Exploring new avenues for growth across UCaaS, Cloud and Managed Services, this breakout session brings together leaders from across these markets to shed light on the potential of these solutions in today’s business landscape. Learn how unified communications, cloud computing and managed services are unlocking revenue, scalability and enhanced customer experiences.  

• How much growth potential is there to UCaaS, Cloud 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?  

Experts will delve into the latest developments in securitization, unveiling deal structures that are reshaping the industry. Learn how securitisation is changing the landscape for TMT financing and gain valuable insights into leveraging these structures for sustainable growth and investment opportunities.  

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?  

Industry executives, investors and advisers discuss how telecom M&A strategies are changing in response to infrastructure ownership models, changes in technology and increased connectivity and demand for data. 

• Assessing the market – which deals got done in 2023 and what’s in the pipeline for 2024? 
• How have changes in the credit markets affected deal flow and what is the outlook for LBOs and PE-related transactions? Are we expecting to see any jumbo MNO deals or consolidation? 
• Infra M&A – which deal structures are proving most effective and what’s happening with valuation multiples and demand? 
• How is new technology and connectivity affecting deals and what will be the next growth area for telecom operators and infra providers? 

The increasing impact of ESG on financing and growth prospects for telecoms, datacentres and towers, and the move to make the industry more sustainable and energy efficient, is creating new challenges and opportunities for operators, financiers and investors. This session discusses how stakeholders can navigate that change. 

This breakout session will examine the impact of AI on digital infrastructure, with a focus on datacenters. What does this rapidly changing environment mean for both investment and deals?