REG - Digital 9 Infrastr. - Appointment of Investment Manager personnel

Digital 9 InfrastructureAnnouncement

13/06/2023 07:00

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RNS Number : 4704C  Digital 9 Infrastructure PLC  13 June 2023

13 June 2023

 

DIGITAL 9 INFRASTRUCTURE PLC

("D9", the "Company" or, together with its subsidiaries, the "Group")

 

Appointment of Investment Manager personnel

 

·    Diego Massidda appointed Head of Digital Infrastructure

·    Arnaud Jaguin promoted to Head of Investment - Digital Infrastructure

·    Laureen Cook appointed Operating Partner and Member of the Digital
Infrastructure Investment Committee

 

Digital 9 Infrastructure plc (ticker: DGI9), a leading investor in the
infrastructure of the internet, is pleased to note the appointment of
additional personnel to the Triple Point Investment Management ("Triple Point"
or the "Investment Manager") digital infrastructure team.

 

Further to the previous announcement on 1 December 2022, the Investment
Manager has completed the competitive recruitment and selection process to
appoint a new Head of Digital Infrastructure. Triple Point and the Board of D9
have thoroughly evaluated the skills and experience D9 would benefit from to
complement the skillset of the existing portfolio management team, including
Investee Companies' executive management, and of the Operating Partner panel
at Triple Point.

 

Diego Massidda, Head of Digital Infrastructure

 

Following this process, Triple Point is pleased to appoint Diego Massidda as
Head of Digital Infrastructure with effect from 1 September 2023. Diego will
lead the active management of D9's portfolio to further optimise its operating
and financial performance and help drive the growth and convergence of D9's
platforms.

 

Diego is a seasoned industry veteran with over 20 years' operating experience
in global telecommunications and digital infrastructure. Diego has spent 16
years with Vodafone Group plc ("Vodafone"), and is currently CEO of Vodafone
Partner Markets, responsible for all services provided by Vodafone to other
mobile operators in c. 50 countries where Vodafone does not operate directly.
In this role, he provides strategic guidance and operational expertise to
partner market CEOs to grow revenue share, profitability, and drive
operational excellence.

Until recently, Diego was also CEO of Vodafone Carrier Services, responsible
for the commercial strategy and execution of Vodafone data and voice wholesale
business globally, including sub-sea and terrestrial optical fibre assets.

 

Diego spent five years as CEO of Vodafone Hungary, taking the mobile operator
from number three to number two in revenue share in the market, through
sustained double-digit revenue and profit growth and best customer experience.
His experience in Vodafone includes leading the development and launch of a
satellite/cable/IPTV broadcasting and streaming service for Vodafone Germany,
and the responsibility for the development of Vodafone's fixed broadband
activities globally.

 

He was previously the CEO of Telecom Italia France and Tiscali (South Africa
and later France), during which time he was responsible for the B2B hosting
and co-location business of these entities based on their data centre assets.

 

Diego started his career as a civil engineer, and later worked for McKinsey
& Company. He is a qualified civil engineer and holds an MBA from INSEAD
Business School.

 

Following an induction process, Diego will be responsible for stakeholder
relations and will be available to meet shareholders and sell-side research
analysts following the publication of the Company's Interim Results for the
period ended 30 June 2023.

 

The interim results will be presented by Ben Beaton, Co-Managing Partner of
Triple Point, who will continue to manage D9 on an interim basis, and
long-term will continue to support the execution of the Company's strategy
working closely with the Triple Point digital infrastructure team.

 

Arnaud Jaguin, Head of Investment - Digital Infrastructure

 

Diego will lead an established team of digital infrastructure investment
experts at Triple Point including Arnaud Jaguin, who has been promoted to Head
of Investment - Digital Infrastructure. Arnaud has been integral to D9's
development since IPO in 2021, leading the origination and execution of the
Company's investments into Aqua Comms, Arqiva Group and Elio Networks
(formerly, Host Ireland).

 

Arnaud has over 15 years' experience in telecoms and digital infrastructure.
He began his career in telecoms M&A advisory at UBS Investment Bank,
advising on approximately £50 billion worth of transactions. Arnaud's diverse
industry experience includes Level3 Communications (corporate development and
strategy), CenturyLink (marketing), RETN (sales operations) and Ontix
(finance).

 

Laureen Cook, Operating Partner

 

Triple Point is also pleased to appoint Laureen Cook to its digital
infrastructure team's Operating Partner panel alongside Alan Harper, Simon
Beresford-Wylie and Steve Andrews. Laureen will sit on Triple Point's Digital
Infrastructure Investment Committee and, alongside an established panel of
Operating Partners, will support Investee Companies' commercial development in
partnership with the executive management teams.

 

Laureen has a leading track record of over 25 years in the wireless, fibre,
subsea, towers and data centres sectors, in addition to investment expertise
in emerging technologies including IoT, cloud convergence, and satellite.
Laureen has deployed over $16 billion to telecoms infrastructure projects in
these sectors globally on behalf of institutional investors and was most
recently the former principal of the TMT private equity investment group at
the World Bank's International Finance Corporation.

 

Phil Jordan, Chair of Digital 9 Infrastructure plc, said: "Diego is an
industry leader and his track record at CEO level of delivering revenue and
profitability growth will complement the expertise of D9's investment team and
our world-class Investee Company management. We look forward to working with
Diego and Laureen, alongside Arnaud and Ben, who will continue to execute the
Company's investment strategy and fund management."

 

 

ENDS.

 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION ON THE COMPANY, PLEASE CONTACT:

 

  Triple Point Investment Management LLP          +44 (0)20 7201 8989

  (Investment Manager)

  Ben Beaton

  Arnaud Jaguin
  J.P. Morgan Cazenove (Joint Corporate Broker)   +44 (0)20 7742 4000

  William Simmonds

  Jérémie Birnbaum
  Peel Hunt (Joint Corporate Broker)              +44 (0)20 7418 8900

  Luke Simpson

  Huw Jeremy

  FTI Consulting (Communications Adviser)         dgi9@fticonsulting.com

  Ed Berry                                        +44 (0)7703 330 199

  Mitch Barltrop                                  +44 (0)7807 296 032

  Maxime Lopes                                    +44 (0)7890 896 777

 

LEI: 213800OQLX64UNS38U92

 

About Digital 9 Infrastructure plc:

 

Digital 9 Infrastructure plc (DGI9) is an investment trust listed on the
London Stock Exchange and a constitutent of the FTSE 250, with ticker DGI9.
The Company invests in the infrastructure of the internet that underpins the
world's digital economy: digital infrastructure.

 

The Investment Manager is Triple Point Investment Management LLP ("Triple
Point") which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority,
with extensive experience in infrastructure, real estate and private credit,
while keeping ESG principles central to its business mission. Triple Point's
digital infrastructure team has over $300 billion in digital infrastructure
transaction experience and in-depth relationships across global tech and
global telecoms companies.

 

The number 9 in Digital 9 Infrastructure comes from the UN Sustainable
Development Goal 9, which focuses the fund on investments that increase
connectivity globally and improve the sustainability of digital
infrastructure. The assets DGI9 invests in typically comprise scalable
platforms and technologies including (but not limited to) subsea fibre, data
centres, terrestrial fibre and wireless networks.

 

From its IPO in March 2021 and subsequent capital raises, DGI9 has raised
total equity of £905 million and a revolving credit facility of £375
million, invested into the following data centres, subsea fibre, terrestrial
fibre and wireless networks:

 

·     Aqua Comms, a leading owner and operator of 20,000km of the most
modern subsea fibre systems - the backbone of the internet - with a customer
base comprising global tech and global telecommunications carriers (April
2021);

·     Verne Global Iceland, the leading Icelandic data centre platform,
with 40MW of high intensity computing solutions in operation or development,
powered by 100% baseload renewable power (September 2021);

·      EMIC-1, a partnership with Meta on a 10,000km fibre system from
Europe to India (July 2021);

·    SeaEdge UK1, a data centre and landing station for the North Sea
Connect subsea cable, part of the North Atlantic Loop subsea network,
improving connectivity between the UK, Ireland, Scandinavia and North America
(December 2021);

·     Elio Networks (previously Host Ireland) a leading enterprise
broadband provider that owns and operates Fixed Wireless Access networks
(April 2022);

·     Verne Global London (previously Volta), a premier data centre
based in central London, providing 6MW retail co-location services (April
2022);

·     Verne Global Finland (previously Ficolo), a leading Finnish data
centre and cloud infrastructure platform, with c.23MW of data centre capacity,
powered by 100% renewable power and distributing surplus heat to district
heating networks (July 2022).

·   Giggle, a revolutionary Fibre to the Home network providing affordable
broadband to social housing in Glasgow (July 2022); and

·     Arqiva, the only UK national terrestrial television and radio
broadcasting network in the United Kingdom - providing data, network and
communications services, as well as a national IoT connectivity platform
(October 2022).

 

The Company's Ordinary Shares were admitted to trading on the Specialist Fund
Segment of the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange on 31 March 2021. It
was admitted to the premium listing segment of the Official List of the
Financial Conduct Authority and migrated to trading on the premium segment of
the Main Market on 30 August 2022.

 

For more information on the Investment Manager please visit
www.triplepoint.co.uk. For more information, please visit
www.d9infrastructure.com (http://www.d9infrastructure.com) .

 

Operating Partner Panel

 

Alan Harper

 

Alan spent 12 years at Vodafone Plc, as Group Strategy Director, he led c.$200
billion of acquisitions. Alan co-founded and was CEO at Eaton Towers, a
leading tower company, which was acquired by American Tower for c.$1.9 billion
in 2019.

 

Laureen Cook

 

Laureen has a leading track record of over 25 years in the wireless, fibre,
subsea, towers and data centres sectors, in addition to investment expertise
in emerging technologies including IoT, cloud convergence, and satellite.
Laureen has deployed over $16 billion to telecoms infrastructure projects in
these sectors globally on behalf of institutional investors and was most
recently the former principal of the TMT private equity investment group at
the World Bank's International Finance Corporation.

 

Simon Beresford-Wylie

 

Simon was the CEO of Arqiva and led the sale of Arqiva's telecoms division for
c.$2 billion, as well as the Indoor Networks portfolio sale to Wireless
Infrastructure Group (WIG), a 3i Infrastructure company. Simon was previously
VP at Network's Business Unit of Samsung Electronics and founding CEO of Nokia
Siemens Networks.

 

Steve Andrews

 

Steve was an Executive at BT plc for 25 years, including as President of the
Global Carrier business where he was responsible for managing BT's Network
Operations across 125 countries, MD Fixed and Wireless/Mobile Products, and
was a member of BT Group Capital Investment Committee. Previously he was Chair
of PE backed Azzurri Communications until its successful exit in 2016.

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