Telecoms Infrastructure M&A: What does the future hold? TMT Finance take an in-depth look at the opportunities for growth in 2019 and beyond

With digital transformation increasing the volume of data large TMT companies need to process, and the shift to off-premises cloud computing, competition for the best assets is intensifying. Buyers need to be selective and understand how to acquire at speed, as well as navigate increased regulatory scrutiny, global political uncertainty, the impact of 5G, unsettled markets and questions about trade and tariffs. 2019 has seen a shift in trends from previous years, so how can TMT Dealmakers stay ahead of the curve? Recognise subsector confidence. Fibre, towers and datacentres still remain the most active subsectors within telecoms infrastructure with the emergence of disruptive cloud, mobile and big data analytics technologies driving dealmaking. All industries are looking to outsource their cloud services and datacentres to propel them in their markets, while telecom operators are widely adopting network separation strategies and infrastructure light business models, which is also driving transactions. We expect this trend to continue and there to be a good mix of mid-sized secondary transactions of digital infrastructure and datacentre operators, as well as some large corporate divestitures.