Cordiant Digital Infrastructure : Full year results for the year ended 31 March 2024

Cordiant Digital Infrastructure Limited

Annual Report 2024

Introduction

Strategic report

Governance

Financial statements

Additional information

Introduction	1-3
About us	1
Highlights	2
Portfolio overview	3
Strategic report	4-51

The Strategic report includes an overview of our strategy and business model, the principal risks we face and information about our performance. It also details our approach to ESG, stakeholder engagement and our voluntary first reporting under the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) framework.

Governance	52-71
The Governance report contains details about the
activities of the Board and its committees during the year.
Financial statements	72-101

Our financial statements include: the independent auditor's report; financial statements which have been prepared in accordance with IFRS as issued by the IASB, the Statement of Recommended Practice issued by the Association of Investment Companies (the AIC SORP) and the Companies (Guernsey) Law 2008 (as amended); and related commentary and notes to the financial statements.

Additional information	102-108
Directors and general information	103
Glossary of capitalised defined terms	104
Alternative performance measures (APMs)	105
Investment policy	106
Cautionary statement	108

About this report

For more online, visit

www.cordiantdigitaltrust.com

To view our interactive online Annual Report, or to download all or portions of the full report, please scan the QR code below or visit our website: www.cordiantdigitaltrust.com/investors

Cover and inside front cover: Suwałki Transmitter, Krzemianucha, Poland.

Introduction	Strategic report	Governance	Financial statements	Additional information		1

About us

Cordiant Digital Infrastructure Limited is

1. sector-focused,specialist owner and operator of assets in one of the fastest growing infrastructure sectors.

The Company's Core Plus investment approach is focused on generating long-term value and growth by leveraging the Investment Manager's sector expertise and operational experience. We have built a diversified portfolio of assets with high growth potential, investing in data centres, telecommunications towers and fibre-optic networks across Europe and in North America. The Company seeks to generate an attractive total return of at least 9% per annum over the longer term.

The Investment Manager's strategy is to increase net asset value for investors through buying high-quality Digital Infrastructure platforms, building additional asset capacity and growing

the revenues and cash flows of those assets through active management.

Cordiant Digital Infrastructure Limited Annual Report 2024

Introduction	Strategic report	Governance	Financial statements	Additional information		2

Highlights: the strength of the portfolio underpins good performance

£920.7m

Net asset value (NAV) (2023: £875.7m)

9.3%

Total return for the period on ex-dividend opening NAV (2023: 10.0%)

4.2p

Dividend in respect of the financial year

(2023: 4.0p)

120.1p

NAV per ordinary share (2023: 113.4p)

32.8%

NAV total return since inception, assuming dividends reinvested (2023 21.1%)

7.2%

Portfolio company EBITDA growth over that of the prior comparable period, earned on 7.9% revenue growth over the prior comparable period

€190.5m

Enterprise value on acquisition of Speed Fibre completed

in October 2023

Telecom masts at Croghan Hill, County Kilkenny, Ireland.

1.6x

Dividend covered by adjusted funds from operations (AFFO)1. Dividend covered 4.4x by aggregate EBITDA

1See calculation and discussion on page 21.

The Company uses alternative performance measures (APMs) in addition to IFRS measures to assess and describe its performance. Further information on the APMs used in this document and how they are calculated is given on page 105.

Cordiant Digital Infrastructure Limited Annual Report 2024

4

Bolt-on acquisitions completed in the year underlining the delivery of the Buy, Build & Grow model. Emitel acquired the Polish telecom tower business of American Tower Corporation; CRA acquired Cloud4com, a leading Czech cloud provider, and two smaller businesses

Introduction	Strategic report	Governance	Financial statements	Additional information		3

Portfolio overview

Portfolio companies

Emitel		České Radiokomunikace (CRA)
Acquired November 2022		Acquired April 2021
Multi-asset platform		Multi-asset platform
Poland		Czech Republic

Speed Fibre

Acquired October 2023 Fibre infrastructure platform Ireland

Hudson Interxchange (Hudson) Acquired January 2022 Interconnect data centre

New York

Norkring

Acquired January 2024 Broadcast and colocation services Belgium

Diversified portfolio asset mix

18.3 MW	9
of data centre power capacity		data centres
1,303	6,276		15	77
telecommunications towers		microwave connections	multiplexers1	broadcast towers2
10,813 km		ca.89,520		1Of which nine are leased.
of fibre-optic network3		active IoT sensors
					2Of which seventeen are leased.
					3Some owned and some leased.

Diversified portfolio client base, including:

Vodafone		T-Mobile		O2	Three	Orange
AT&T		Verizon		Amazon	Digital Realty

Cordiant Digital Infrastructure Limited Annual Report 2024

Introduction	Strategic report	Governance	Financial statements	Additional information		4

Strategic report	"The Company achieved a good
	performance, underpinned by
	the strength of the portfolio that
	we have constructed."
	Shonaid Jemmett-Page
	Chairman

Who we are and what we do Our business model

Creating value through our investment strategy Chairman's statement

Financial KPIs Non-financial measures Investment Manager's report Review of portfolio companies Pipeline

Environmental, social and governance (ESG) Section 172 statement

Stakeholder engagement Risk management

Principal risks and uncertainties

Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD)

Longer term viability statement

6

8

9

10

12

13

14

23

32

33

38

39

42

44

46

51

Cordiant Digital Infrastructure Limited Annual Report 2024

Introduction	Strategic report	Governance	Financial statements	Additional information		5

Skrzyczne Television Tower,

Szczyrk, Poland.

Cordiant Digital Infrastructure Limited Annual Report 2024

Introduction	Strategic report	Governance	Financial statements	Additional information		6

Who we are and what we do

We have constructed a portfolio of high-quality Digital Infrastructure platforms with the ability to expand these further through incremental capex and bolt-on acquisitions.

The Investment Manager has a large, sector specialist team composed of senior industry operating executives and private capital professionals with deep expertise in the sector. Its strategy focuses on Core Plus assets

(see page 9) and is designed to grow NAV for investors through buying high-quality Digital Infrastructure assets, building additional infrastructure and growing the revenues and cash flows of those assets through active management under a Buy, Build & Grow model.

Digital Infrastructure enables modern communication networks, which have assumed

a central place in the day-to-day activities

of society, government and business. It is

commonly described as consisting of the

communications towers, data centres,

#1

Emitel

Poland

The leading independent broadcasting and telecommunications infrastructure operator in Poland, providing access to TV and radio signal for nearly the entire population.

Read more on pages 24 and 25.

#2

#3

#4

CRA	Speed Fibre	Hudson
Czech Republic	Ireland	New York
The leading independent	A leading open access	An interconnect data
Digital Infrastructure	backbone fibre network	centre operating in the
platform in the Czech	provider in Ireland with	most interconnected
Republic, holding the	fibre and wireless backhaul	facility in one of the most
national broadcast	across the country as well	interconnected cities on
licence and developing a	as providing connection	the planet.
significant data centre and	and services to business
cloud services presence.	and retail customers.
Read more on pages 26 and 27.	Read more on pages 28 and 29.	Read more on page 30.

#5

Norkring

Belgium

A provider of broadcast, colocation and site hosting services, with

25 communications and broadcast towers located across the Flemish region of Belgium and Brussels.

Read more on page 31.

fibre-optic networks and Internet of Things (IoT)

sensors that constitute the physical layer of

the internet. In many cases, these assets can

be shared by customers, potentially resulting

in greater coverage and higher profits for

operators. Contracts are typically long term,

benefit from inflation escalators and are often

with blue-chip counterparties.

Digital Infrastructure has been estimated by McKinsey Global Institute as being one of the top three categories of infrastructure capital spending globally. It benefits from growth rates above those of the economy as a whole.

The Company focuses on growth platforms in the middle market. It has assembled a well-diversified portfolio including 1,380 communications towers, 10,813km of fibre-optic network, IoT networks and nine data centres. This broadly diversified base of assets is held through five portfolio companies.

Geographic context

#3	#2
	#1
#4	#5

Cordiant Digital Infrastructure Limited Annual Report 2024

Introduction	Strategic report	Governance	Financial statements	Additional information		7

Who we are and what we do

Our investments

A diversified portfolio

%	4
	5
	1
	3
	2

Revenue by segment*	%
1. Digital broadcast infrastructure	46.0
2. Mobile towers	13.1
3. Backbone fibre-optic networks	30.4
4. Data centres and cloud	10.1
5. Internet of Things/Smart City	0.4
Total	100.0

*Pro forma for the year including Speed Fibre and Norkring

Digital broadcast infrastructure Broadcast antennas are placed on towers, which are typically very tall and owned by the Company, for the purposes of broadcasting content from content originators, through a multiplexer which sorts and prepares the signal, to homes and businesses equipped with aerial receptors.

Mobile towers

Communications towers - cellular-enabledmobile device sites where antennas and electronic communications equipment are placed, typically on a radio mast, tower, or other raised structure.

Distributed antenna systems (DAS) - where a network of antennas connected to a common source is distributed throughout a building or an area to improve network performance.

Data centres

Physical facilities that enterprises and specialist cloud providers use to run their business-critical applications and store data. These are now fundamental to almost every industry around the world and are an enabler for all current digital communications. They are also vital for technology evolution such as artificial intelligence and 5G.

Cloud computing

Cloud computing is the outsourced on-demand delivery of computing power and associated services over the internet to offer faster innovation, flexible resources, and economies of scale.

Internet of Things (IoT)

Networks of sensors that monitor and manage utility networks, such as water.

Backbone fibre-optic networks

The medium and technology associated with the transmission of information as light pulses along a glass or plastic strand or fibre.

1. fibre-opticnetwork is used for long-distance and high-performance data networking.
   It is also commonly used in telecommunication services such as the internet, television
   and telephones.

Fibre-optic networks consist of four main elements: subsea cables, cross-border hubs, metro-local loops and last mile/access.

Cordiant Digital Infrastructure Limited Annual Report 2024

Introduction	Strategic report	Governance	Financial statements	Additional information		8

Our business model

The Company invests under a Buy, Build & Grow model, with a strong capital discipline.

The Company seeks to acquire cash-generative platforms (generally of medium size) and

then to expand and improve them. This is made possible by the team. The Investment Manager is one of the most experienced and well resourced Digital Infrastructure investment teams in the market.

Buy, Build & Grow Mid-market focus

With an emphasis on applying growth capital to boost the internal rate of return (IRR) and multiple on invested capital.

Disciplined buying

Emphasis on disciplined buying (below average blended entry multiples) and operational improvements.

Balanced senior team

Seasoned industry executives alongside experienced private equity and corporate professionals, all with deep sector experience.

Sourcing investment opportunities

Proven ability to source proprietary investment opportunities.

Sustainability

Fully integrated into investment process.

The Company principally invests in operating Digital Infrastructure assets, mainly focusing on data centres, mobile telecommunications/broadcast towers and fibre-optic network assets, in Europe and North America.

Build value in the medium and longer term Diversification

Secure greater portfolio diversification through geographical spread and balanced sub-sector allocation.

Specialist experience

Specialist experience across mobile towers, data centres and fibre: the core building blocks of the internet.

Operational improvements Continuously producing tangible and measurable operational improvements led by in-housesector specialists.

Our focus on sustainability Collectively, sorting, processing and moving data around the world currently accounts for more than 3% of global electricity consumption.

The Company recognises the need to:

• reduce the carbon footprint of the digital economy, with special focus on:
• • enabling efficient network design, e.g. supporting the integration of 5G and broadcast;
  • integrating renewable energy where possible; and
  • energy efficiency at the network component level e.g. more efficient data centres.
• reduce the carbon footprint of society, through enhanced communications and connectivity, such as the application of technologies to develop more sustainable cities.
• better connect underserved businesses and households to the digital economy, supporting enhanced opportunity and economic activity.

Market growth

The Digital Infrastructure market is forecast to grow strongly over the coming decade.

Volume of data/information created, captured, copied, and consumed worldwide from 2010 to 2025 (actual and forecast).

2025 181

2024 147

2023 120

2022 97

2021 79

2020 64.2

2019 41

2018 33

2017 26

2016 18

2015 15.5

2014 12.5

2013 9

2012 6.5

2011 5

2010 2

Zettabytes

Source: Statista 2023

Cordiant Digital Infrastructure Limited Annual Report 2024