DigitalBridge has closed on its acquisition of AMP Capital’s infrastructure equity investment business.
The company announced this week that certain subsidiaries have completed the transaction to acquire the unit in a deal valued at $316 million (plus potential further payments based on future performance thresholds).
First announced in May 2022, the acquired company has been rebranded as InfraBridge.
The newly-rebranded unit comprises four investment funds with $5.6 billion of assets under management; InfraBridge will operate as an autonomous business unit within the wider DigitalBridge investment management platform dedicated to investing in mid-market businesses in transportation and logistics, digital infrastructure, and energy transition.
Damian Stanley, previously global co-head, value-added infrastructure equity at AMP Capital, will serve as the managing partner of InfraBridge. Bernardo Vargas Gibsone, who joined DigitalBridge’s leadership team in September 2022 after serving as CEO of ISA Group, has been appointed non-executive chair of InfraBridge.
“We are pleased to welcome to DigitalBridge an experienced, high-caliber investment team that shares our focus on generating attractive, long-term, risk-adjusted returns for our investors,” said Marc Ganzi, DigitalBridge CEO. “InfraBridge complements our “full-stack” investment platform, positioning DigitalBridge to capitalize on high-return mid-market investment opportunities. Further, the acquisition immediately contributes significant earnings and further advances DigitalBridge’s strategic roadmap towards an asset-light, high-growth asset manager serving secular growth markets.”
The acquired funds have investments in a number of tower, fiber, and data center firms, including Swedish fiber to the home company VX Fiber, US dark fiber provider Everstream Solutions, tower firm Telecom Infrastructure Partners (TIP), and Expedient Data Centers.
AMP acquired Expedient in 2019, in a deal reportedly valued at more than $500 million. The company offers colocation space from 15 locations across the US.
“We are excited to be joining DigitalBridge, a respected leader in the global infrastructure space, to continue expanding our infrastructure mandate throughout the mid-market,” Stanley said. “We share DigitalBridge’s vision to deliver long-term stable returns by allocating capital and building value at the portfolio company level and look forward to benefiting from a group with vast institutional knowledge to help accelerate our growth.”
Stanley joined AMP Capital in 2015 and has held leadership positions, including senior manager of AMP Capital Investors (UK), and CEO Singapore office, among others. Prior to AMP Capital, he held positions at Whitehelm Capital, Morgan Stanley, Macquarie Infrastructure, PWC, and Commerzbank.
“I’m looking forward to working with this extremely talented team, led by Damian, to maximize the value of InfraBridge’s high-quality portfolio of existing investments and further refine its investment strategy, as well as continuing to expand DigitalBridge’s capital base,” added Gibsone.