Global Infrastructure Partners

Over the last five years, a large chunk of this sector has left the public markets entirely.

Cirrus 1, a public RRT, was taken private by KKR and Global Infrastructure Partners in a deal valued around $15bn in 2021.

QTS Realty Trust, another public RET, was acquired by Blackstone the same year.

Blackstone paid $16.6 billion for Asia Pacific Operator air trunk in 2024 and then, on October 15th, 2025, the record broke.

A consortium of BlackRock's Global Infrastructure Partners, Abu Dhabi's MGX, and the Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure Partnership, a vehicle formed by BlackRock, MGX, Microsoft and Nvidia, agreed to acquire aligned data centres at an enterprise value of approximately $40 billion.

more than double the previous record.

The deal closed on July 21st, 2026, three days before this recording.

So that really showed the infrastructure characteristics of TCR.

We were able to show the strength of the growth, and we sold it on to a very large buyer, so GIP, part of BlackRock.

for a very good uplift.

And the TCR in our valuations had been going very strongly.

And in the listed space, we are in a very strong liquidity position relative to other listed stocks.

In the private markets, which is actually our main competition to some extent, although we try and avoid competitive processes, but certainly where we sell businesses into, there is still quite a lot of dry powder.

Certainly the big funds, you know, the GIP, BlackRock type of people, there's a lot of dry powder.

But we're in a very strong position with up to 1.2 billion to invest before we get the next realisation.

And so when I started, because it's a public company, they have to disclose a lot of this stuff.

And BlackRock spent $29 billion, Greg, I think in 2004, to buy Global Infrastructure Partners, HPS, Investment Partners, a private credit firm.

So they're going all in on this stuff because they want to get out of the low-fee-based business, and they want to get to high-fee, private equity, and so forth, and where they're going to make money.

And so when you Look at it, the whole, and I have, the most important thing if you're buying like a asset manager, is to look what is called the FIRE, the fee-related income.

Green light versus red light.

Did they make it? I don't know.

But you describe it as this financial octopus that's gone on a $30 billion shopping spree, right? So it's buying all this stuff up, right? And then you cite what it bought up, HPS for $12 billion, global infrastructure partners for $12.5 billion, and so on and so on.

And then there are what you call circus tricks, right? Right.

To move at pace, that requires government support, whether that's through grant funding, business models, or mechanisms that provide revenue certainty.

Thankfully, we are seeing momentum and investment into this sector with the HiNet project that Tim mentioned taking final investment decision in April 2025 with the Liverpool Bay carbon dioxide storage platform, with ENI leading that alongside private, significant private sector investment from partners, including GIP, which is part of BlackRock.

That's a really important signal because it shows that large-scale CO2 transport and storage infrastructure is now moving from concept into delivery and is investable from big private equity players.

In parallel, there is an ongoing DESNES CO2 NPT consultation that we responded to earlier this year, which is aiming at developing a business model that will enable NPT to be supported alongside pipeline-connected carbon dioxide emitters.

Sovereign Capital provides a useful comparison.

In July, the consortium involving the AI Infrastructure Partnership, MGX, and BlackRock's Global Infrastructure Partners completed its acquisition of Aligned Data Centers.

That is established ownership activity, not a new transaction announced today.

The strategic attraction is control of operating infrastructure.

H-how...

So part of their plan has been an acquisition strategy, right, with HPS, the Global Infrastructure Partners, data side.

I think the more fintech, wasn't it? Preqin, was that what it was called?

Yeah.

That saw a net inflow of $24 billion, also a beat.

That's an area where BlackRock has been ramping up focus, having acquired alternative credit specialist HPS Investment Partners last year, as well as infrastructure firm GIP and private market data firm Preqin.

So it's looking like that sign that that's bringing in more money than expected.

Overall, AUM just shy of $15.5 trillion.