Digital Infrastructure
Contracts, not replacement cost.
Capital advisory for the connective layer: fiber routes, conduit, and edge facilities, typically alongside a data center or campus financing rather than as standalone infrastructure M&A. We advise on where these assets price with real estate lenders versus infrastructure credit funds, and structure the process accordingly. Revenue quality drives everything here: contract tenor, counterparty credit, and renewal history matter more than replacement cost. When a mandate belongs with an infrastructure bank, we flag it before the process starts, not after.
Market Commentary
Where the capital sits.
United States
Digital infrastructure prices off contracts rather than buildings, and the securitization market sets the reference. Fiber issuers have scaled quickly: Zayo raised roughly $3.8 billion across three securitizations during 2025, after a $1.42 billion inaugural transaction in January 2025 (Zayo, 2026). Towers are the older market and the template for the newer one. Vertical Bridge closed a $1.94 billion single-series tower securitization in February 2026, the largest unified tower deal to that point, against the $2.07 billion single-closing record set in October 2024 (Wireless Estimator, February 2026). Rating agencies apply the tower methodology to fiber, so leverage is quoted as a multiple of asset cash flow rather than as a loan-to-value. The Vertical Bridge 2026-1 transaction was rated at 14.2 times debt to net cash flow, with a 9.75 times senior leverage trigger and cash sweeps of 25 to 75 percent (Asset Securitization Report, 2026). The structural feature to understand before signing anything is the anticipated repayment date. Missing it does not default the loan. It traps every dollar of excess cash flow and steps up the coupon until the facility is refinanced, and that single mechanic shapes how these assets are underwritten at origination.
United Kingdom
Our UK coverage here is debt advisory. Sterling paper for fiber and towers sits with a narrow group: infrastructure credit funds, the European banks running telecom and digital infrastructure desks, and a securitization market that is younger and thinner than the US one. Wayleaves, duct and pole access, and the terms of the underlying network agreements do more to decide financeability than the physical asset does. Where a network sits alongside a data center or campus we are already working on, we run it inside that mandate rather than as a separate process. We advise on the debt: sizing, structure, and running the lender process.
Scope
Where the boundary sits.
This is the sector where the wrong lender wastes the most time, so the distinction is worth drawing early. An edge facility on a ground lease with an anchor tenant is a real estate credit, and a real estate lender will price it on cost, value, and coverage. A fiber route is not. There is no building to value, the collateral is a bundle of contracts and rights of way, and the lender is underwriting recurring revenue, churn, and counterparty credit at a multiple of cash flow rather than a percentage of value. We cover the real estate credit pools and the infrastructure credit funds and bank desks that sit next to them. Standalone network M&A and platform-level infrastructure banking belong with an infrastructure bank, and when a mandate is one of those we say so before the process starts rather than after.
Capital Sources
Active lenders for digital infrastructure.
The lenders who are actually transacting today, by capital type and typical profile.
Infrastructure credit funds
The natural home for contracted network assets. They lend at the project or platform level against recurring revenue and will underwrite a build-out schedule that a real estate credit committee will not.
Bank telecom and digital infrastructure desks
Club and syndicated construction and term facilities for sponsors with an operating history, usually with a cash flow sweep and a covenant package built around contracted revenue.
Private credit
Larger platform financings and the tranches a bank club will not hold, priced for flexibility on structure and speed rather than on coupon.
Securitization: fiber and tower ABS
The takeout market. Rated on tower methodology, interest-only to an anticipated repayment date, with leverage expressed as a multiple of asset cash flow.
Real estate lenders
Relevant where the collateral is genuinely a building or a site, such as an edge facility or a hut on a ground lease, rather than a network.
Execution
What we place.
Sector-specific execution across the full capital stack, structured around the business plan rather than a template.
Construction and term debt for fiber routes sized on contracted recurring revenue
Facility-level financing for edge sites and huts, where the collateral is a building rather than a network
Securitized takeouts through fiber and tower ABS, structured to an anticipated repayment date
Financings run inside a data center or campus mandate rather than as a standalone process
Contract analysis on tenor, counterparty credit, escalators, and renewal history
Rights of way, easements, and pole attachment diligence packaged before lenders see the file
Execution
How we finance digital infrastructure.
Construction and term debt for fiber routes sized on contracted recurring revenue
Facility-level financing for edge sites and huts, where the collateral is a building rather than a network
Securitized takeouts through fiber and tower ABS, structured to an anticipated repayment date
Financings run inside a data center or campus mandate rather than as a standalone process
Contract analysis on tenor, counterparty credit, escalators, and renewal history
Rights of way, easements, and pole attachment diligence packaged before lenders see the file
Diligence
What a lender asks for first.
The documents that decide whether a financing is quotable. Missing any of them changes the process rather than the price.
- Customer contracts and revenue schedule
- Master service agreements and IRUs, with tenor, escalators, termination rights, and how much of the revenue sits with the top few counterparties.
- Counterparty credit file
- Ratings or financials for the carriers, enterprises, and hyperscalers on those contracts. The credit is theirs before it is the sponsor's.
- Churn and renewal history
- Actual renewal rates by cohort rather than a blended average, because the exit is priced off revenue that stays.
- Network asset schedule
- Route miles, strand counts, lit against dark, conduit ownership, and what is leased in rather than owned outright.
- Rights of way and site control
- Franchise agreements, easements, pole attachment agreements, and ground leases, each running past the debt term.
- Independent engineer or technical report
- Condition, spare capacity, and the capital expenditure needed to hold the contracted service levels through the term.
Newsletter
Stay current on digital infrastructure capital markets.
Quarterly sector commentary, capital stack benchmarks, and where the lending market is moving.
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Working on a digital infrastructure deal?
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