10 November, 2025
Hilton London Tower BridgeLondon, UKPreliminary Agenda
Provisional Start & End Times:
November 10th: 7am-6pm
General Themes
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An Introduction To PE In The Data Centre Industry (virtual-October 6, 11:30est)
- Are data centre investments best classified as private equity cash flow deals, real estate plays, or infrastructure assets?
- What are the preferred financing routes for high-quality data centre assets?
- Exploring the use of project finance structures and securitised instruments (ABS/CMBS)
- How does power availability influence investment underwriting?
- Is the market ready for increased activity in secondary locations?
- Assessing the impact of supply chain constraints on development and operations
- Understanding the sources of capital and the distinctions between them
- Examining the evolving dynamics of demand in the sector
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Economy & Demand Drivers: What is Driving Demand Across Europe in the Current Environment?
- If AI & Power are #1 & #2, what else is on top of the list?
- Supply chain bottlenecks and infrastructure constraints across European markets
- Exploring the impact of hybrid working models and digital transformation
- The European Perspective: AI and Compute Demand vs. The Deep Seek Fallout
- How Are European data centres navigating grid constraints and sustainability requirements?
- Navigating regulatory landscapes across different jurisdictions
- Current capacity vs. 10-year growth forecasts
- Cost inflation analysis: Construction, power, and operational expenditures
- Comparing tier 1 and emerging European data Centre markets
- Investment and M&A trends: European capital flows and cross-border transactions
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How Are Investors in the European Market Valuing Data Centres, JVs & M&A Opportunities?
- Moving beyond EBITDA: Focus on power, land, and development potential
- Valuing grid access, renewables, and permits in constrained markets
- Structuring JVs between operators, infrastructure funds, and institutional capital
- Trends in M&A: Who’s buying and what are they targeting?
- Impact of ESG: How sustainability drives valuation premiums
- FLAP-D hubs vs. emerging European markets
- Pricing in geopolitics, energy security, and regulatory shifts
- Future-ready assets: Valuing scalability and AI-readiness
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How are Infrastructure and Power Constraints Impacting Deal Timelines and Valuations?
- Navigating approval bottlenecks across European jurisdictions
- How delays in power and permits affect IRRs and pricing
- Securing early grid access and managing planning complexity
- Structuring deals to handle uncertain timelines
- Rising demand for brownfield sites with secured power
- How incumbents vs. new entrants tackle approval hurdles
- Comparing approval timelines and investor sentiment by country
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Hyperscaler Demand and Tenant Dynamics: Will The Market Growth Continue?
- Where will we see growth in this part of the market?
- Understanding the evolving needs of hyperscalers, cloud providers, and enterprise tenants
- What is the financial strength? Is new capital coming in?
- Exploring AI-Driven demand factors and technological evolution
- How are you managing risk with hyperscale as a sole tenant?
- Capital expenditure trends: Are you looking to self-build?
- What is your power strategy?
- Using private equity, strategic partnerships and the rest of the capital stack
- What is your exit strategy?
- Consolidation trends and the M&A landscape
- Do you have a mega campus strategy?
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Navigating the Capital Stack: Financing Strategies, Exit Options & Deal Structures
- Joint ventures vs. equity types: Key differences in waterfalls, promotes, and deal terms in Europe
- Current trends and a future outlook for exit strategies
- Assessing power, renewables, and grid readiness before investing
- Cap rates and financing: Single vs. multi-tenant colocation facilities
- Land buys, construction loans, and stabilized asset deals in major EU markets
- How are foreign equity and EU pension funds investing in data centers?
- Equity needs for build-to-suit, speculative, stabilized, and retrofit projects
- Performance benchmarks and return expectations by asset type and region
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Site Selection, Model & Criteria? Comparing Expensive Primary Markets, Secondary And Edge Markets
- Comparing energy markets: Grid limits vs. renewable access
- Key site must-haves vs. nice-to-haves under local planning rules
- Aligning data centre use cases with network architecture: How application demands shape site and connectivity decisions
- Land first or wait for power and zoning?
- Community engagement and handling local pushback
- Weighing FLAP-D costs vs. emerging markets when latency allows
- Due diligence: Sustainability rules, flood risk, and power security
- Navigating energy pricing, renewables, and market complexity
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ESG and Sustainable Data Centre Development: Net-Zero Commitments and Carbon Accounting
- Meeting ESG goals: Carbon, water, and green certifications
- Aligning with investor-led net-zero targets
- Securing green energy: PPAs, on-site, and grid solutions
- Tackling intermittency and grid limits in the UK/EU
- Cooling innovations and water-saving in dense environments
- ESG in investment screening and asset valuation
- Avoiding greenwashing and reputational risk
- Circularity as a competitive edge in development
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Navigating Regulatory and Planning Hurdles in UK and European Data Centre Development
- Efforts to cut wait times and fast-track priority projects
- Preparing for 9–12 month pre-application timelines
- National goals vs. local resistance and impacts on project speed
- Managing EU-wide zoning, environmental, and energy rules
- Key takeaways from the UK’s Planning and Infrastructure Bill
- ESG criteria in planning approvals
- Will data centres gain full recognition as critical infrastructure?
- Navigating GDPR, the Data Governance Act, and localization rules
- Data sovereignty’s impact on cost, innovation, and market access
- What the 2025 EuroStack framework means for strategy and investment
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From Build to Exit: Unlocking Value Through Strategic Exits and Secondary Market Activity
- What’s working in today’s market?
- Exit options: Trade sales, IPOs, recaps, mergers
- Impact of macro trends, rates, and hyperscaler demand on timing
- Secondary deals: Who’s buying, what’s trading, pricing trends
- REIT conversion vs. public listing: Pros and cons
- Sale-leasebacks to unlock capital and retain control
- Legal, tax, and regulatory factors in cross-border exits
- Best practices for exit-ready structuring and governance
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Preparing Data Centres for AI and High-Density Compute Demands
How AI, machine learning, and HPC are reshaping data centre design
Adapting to 30–100kW+ rack densities
Liquid cooling and thermal innovations
How new workloads are reshaping capacity planning, grid strategies, power demand and financing strategies
Securing stable, scalable power for AI clusters
Modular builds, zoned cooling, and AI-optimized layouts
High-density impact on underwriting and asset value
Balancing AI energy use with ESG and regulatory demands
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Is There Enough Debt? Assessing the Debt Markets in a Volatile Rate Environment
- Financing strategies: Shovel-ready vs. construction-phase projects
- How lenders are pricing risk amid rising costs and rate uncertainty
- Where quality assets are securing debt in Europe today
- Real estate vs. infrastructure debt: Key differences in approach
- Credit ratings and DSCR: Impacts on financing terms
- Comparing terms: Construction-to-perm, stabilized, and refinancing across EU markets
- When and how to hedge interest rate exposure
- ABS market outlook: Is there room to grow, or are alternatives more viable?
- Sale-leasebacks: Unlocking capital while retaining control
- Debt, equity, or preferred: Where’s the value for investors and owners in today’s market?
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Powering the Future: Integrating Energy Innovation into the Data Centre Investment Landscape
- How are corporate power purchase agreements evolving and what do investors and operators need to know?
- Navigating the legal, financial, and operational complexities of PPAs and heat offtake agreements
- Addressing the thermal challenges of high-density racks and the latest in liquid and immersion cooling
- How can data centres participate in grid services through battery storage and backup assets?
- Turning waste heat into a revenue stream or community asset
- Understanding the impact of energy price fluctuations and policy changes on long-term data centre planning
- Opportunities around Hyperscale vs. EDGE
- Balancing uptime requirements with sustainable energy strategies and infrastructure investments
- Investor Perspectives: What private equity and infrastructure funds are looking for in energy-forward data centre assets
- Building partnerships that enable scalable, low-carbon, and grid-friendly data centre developments
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Sovereignty as Strategy: How Cloud, Data & AI Policies Are Shaping European Data Centre Investment
How GDPR, the Data Act, and the AI Act are influencing data centre location and design
National Sovereignty Initiatives: The role of country-specific strategies in shaping investment priorities
Evaluating the influence of pan-European frameworks on infrastructure development
How sovereignty concerns are reshaping due diligence and risk assessment for PE firms
Strategic Site Selection: Sovereignty as a factor in choosing jurisdictions for new data centre builds
The importance of aligning with sovereign-compliant cloud providers and local tech ecosystems
How sovereign AI development is driving demand for specialized, secure data centre capacity
Strategies for ensuring long-term viability amid evolving sovereignty and regulatory landscapes
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How Energy Costs & Grid Resiliency Are Shaping Data Centre Investment in Europe
How are regional energy costs influencing data centre site selection and investment returns?
Assessing the impact of grid stability on uptime, SLAs, and investor confidence
The role of solar, wind, and hydro in powering data centres and meeting ESG targets
How PE firms are factoring energy and resiliency into valuation and deal structuring
What tools such as long-term PPAs and hedging are investors using to manage energy cost volatility?
Infrastructure Bottlenecks: How grid capacity constraints are delaying or reshaping data centre rollout plans
Navigating government incentives and regulations around subsidies, carbon taxes, and energy policy
Evaluating the viability of battery storage, microgrids, and backup systems