Investment Firm Blackstone to Pump Money into UK Broadband
Global investment firm Blackstone is in the process of establishing a dedicated European infrastructure team, which among other things is looking for opportunities to invest billions of pounds into UK infrastructure upgrades including energy, water systems, transport and broadband ISP networks.
As it stands Blackstone Infrastructure Partners (BIP) announced the final close of its inaugural fund-raising phase in 2019 with total commitments of $14 billion (£10.8bn), much of which is connected back to a foundation in the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia.
The company has now hired the former Managing Partner and Head of Europe for rival Brookfield Infrastructure, Jonathan Kelly, to take charge of its new fund as a Senior Managing Director and Head of European Infrastructure. Jon is expected to start his job in London on 6th April 2020 and will then proceed to hunt for investment opportunities across the region.
According to a related report in this is Money, BIP is said to be “bullish” on the United Kingdom and believes that Brexit has caused its assets to become undervalued. In theory the UK could end up attracting roughly a quarter of the aforementioned investment pot (c.£2.5bn) and thus presents another opportunity – one of several – for builders of fibre optic broadband networks to attract more funding.
