Bringing together the world leaders of TMT and Finance to assess the next investment strategies

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 has the growth of infrastructure funds changed the market?
• Greenfield investments – in what ways can investors mitigate construction risk?
• Regulatory risk – where are the challenges and opportunities?
• Equity Capital Markets – what’s the 2020 outlook?

5G promises to reduce costs and offer unparalleled connectivity options. Underground transport networks, stadiums and shopping centres are all deploying carrier neutral small cells to increase connectivity and move towards 5G. Leaders from telecom operators, plus local and national government and other stakeholders discuss the opportunities of urban connectivity.

• To what degree will 5G roll-out rely on small cells?
• Why are we seeing increasing numbers of non-Telco investment in urban connectivity?
• What business models will work for deploying small cells on rooftops and lampposts?
• Is the current permitting regime adequate for widespread small cell installation?
• What are the next steps towards enabling Smart City infrastructure?
• How can industry and local authorities collaborate to support the introduction of 5G?

Leaders from managed ICT, hosting, unified comms and cloud services and infrastructure providers and investors discuss fast growth opportunities in the sector and strategies for investment.

• How is the sector developing on the services layer, and which subsectors are showing most growth potential and consolidation opportunities?
• Cloud computing as an enabler of digital transformation – assessing drivers of cloud adoption
• How is the growth of hyperscalers affecting the marketplace and where are the opportunities for partnerships?
• The changing identity of buyers: who is leading M&A and investment in managed ICT and cloud services, and how is this changing?
• The infrastructure layer - how is the digital infra ecosystem changing in response to a soaring demand for data? 

Telecoms leaders, advisers and investors from across emerging markets discuss opportunities for investment.

• Will portfolio rationalization continue to drive M&A activity?
• Which countries and regions still offer the next big investment opportunities?
• Which transactions are setting new valuation benchmarks?
• How are regulation and state intervention affecting investment strategies?
• How can investors mitigate currency risks?

Leading operators and investors of fibre and high-speed broadband networks in the UK and Europe discuss opportunities for investment, and assess how the market can move towards full penetration 

• How can the industry best take advantage of the long-term demand for new fibre?
• FTTH vs Fibre to DCs/ Cloud - where are the opportunities in both, and who is leading investment? 
• How do national approaches to fibre investment differ? What are knock on effects for financing?
• How is consolidation and M&A progressing in the existing fibre marketplace?

Core telco revenues are slowing; how should operators respond? Senior telecom and tech executives and advisers discuss new telco growth opportunities, against a backdrop of disruptive business models and increasing convergence.

- The future telco – what will it look like? How is that impacting M&A, investment and partnerships?
- AI, Security, Cloud, SaaS, IoT – where are deals happening and which is the most natural habitat for telcos looking to expand offerings?
- IoT – capturing value beyond connectivity services
- Which technologies are proving most disruptive and offer the most opportunities for partnership and investment?
- Programmatic advertising and digital platforms – services complementary to mobile data
- Enterprise services - which subsectors are telcos targeting and why?

Leaders from fibre operators, financiers and investors assess the current influx of new fibre network rollout projects in key European markets, and how they are being funded.

• What financing is available for new greenfield fibre projects in Europe for entrepreneurs, municipalities and established operators? 
• Which structures are becoming most common and how are pricing and conditions changing? Who is leading investment?
• What are the barriers to entry and how do backers and financiers assess risk profile?
• How to bridge the lower density and higher construction cost in rural areas
• OANs vs captive networks and risk of overbuild
• What impact is regulation having on the sector? How can it be improved? 

Industry executives, investors and advisers discuss how telecom investment strategies are changing in the newly converged and digitalised environment.

• Asset-light telco models – what will the future telco look like? How is that impacting M&A?
• Cross-border M&A – where do opportunities remain?
• Infra funds investing in EU telcos – theme or special cases?
• Consolidation review – regulatory changes, concessions, new licences
• How is access to financing changing? How is that affecting deal flow?

Making a buzzword a tangible revenue driver. Leaders from datacentre operators and cloud services companies discuss how business models and investment strategies are developing in the response to the massive potential offered by edge computing.

• Who is best placed to take advantage of the potential offered by edge computing? Who should fund it?
• Use cases – where can edge be most effective and how is it being deployed?
• Partnerships – how are tech companies working with infrastructure providers?
• Consolidation and segmentation – how is the cloud infrastructure sector developing and how is that impacting deals and investment?
• Security – what implications does it have and where are the opportunities for cybersecurity companies, or impact on investment/acquisition decisions?

Industry leaders, regulators and financiers discuss how 5G auctions are developing, which pricing strategies and benchmarks are being deployed, and how the industry is responding.

• State of play – which 5G auctions are taking place and how which approaches are different regulators taking?
• ROI – How are expectations for 5G being balanced against the investment case?
• What architecture and deployment options have European operators used? What impact will that have on towercos?
• How viable are the 5G use cases, and what is the potential timing?
• What have been 5G global deployments to date? How does Europe compare with US and Asia Pacific?
• What is the latest on regulation and policy supporting investments in 5G?

Wireless tower and infrastructure leaders and investors assess strategies for the mobile infrastructure market, the next wave of opportunities and the upcoming changes posed by 5G and fibre.

• Regional towerco developments in EMEA, Asia and Americas – which business models are working, and where?
• The next phase of growth - where should towercos play in fibre, small cell, 5G and edge computing? 
• MNO partnerships - working with MNOs on the next phase of outsourcing, partnerships, acquisitions and network rollout  
• Optimising infrastructure management and managing assets
• Financing - which financing options are available for new growth opportunities and M&A?

IoT offers clear opportunities for the communications sector and a new wave of applications. In this discussion leaders and investors from the communications and IoT sector will discuss the best ways to win value in this competitive space and look at how use cases are developing throughout the value chain, across areas from connectivity solutions and industry 4.0 & 5.0 to connected vehicles, facilities management and building the connected supply chain. 

• Consumer vs Industrial IoT - how are both sides of the industry developing and which business models are working?    
• How are investments and transactions already impacting IoT, and how will 5G change that? 
• Connected cars, buildings and industry 4.0/5.0 - assessing opportunities throughout the value chain
• Which other revenues streams could be developed based on consumer experience?
• Building Smart City Infrastructure - where the opportunities?