Pantheon Infrastructure PLC ($PINT)
Earnings Call Transcript · April 16, 2026
Highlights from the call
Pantheon Infrastructure PLC (PINT:GB) reported strong financial performance for FY 2025, with a notable 14.4% NAV total return, exceeding their target of 8-10%. Revenue and earnings were not explicitly detailed, but the portfolio's growth and strategic asset realizations were highlighted. Management did not provide specific forward revenue or earnings guidance but emphasized a strong liquidity position and the potential for future investments in two new assets. The dividend was increased by 3.5%, reflecting confidence in ongoing cash flow generation.
Main topics
- Portfolio Performance: Pantheon Infrastructure reported a 14.4% NAV total return for FY 2025, significantly above their 8-10% target. The portfolio has grown to GBP 620 million, with strong performance in data centers and renewable energy assets.
- Asset Realizations: The company realized assets like Calpine and partially realized Intersect Power, contributing to a 60% share price gain over three years. The Calpine sale to Constellation Corporation closed in January 2026.
- Dividend Progression: Pantheon increased its dividend by 3.5% last year, maintaining a dividend cover of 1.1x despite delayed distributions from Calpine.
- Geographic and Sector Exposure: The portfolio's exposure to North America increased, while digital asset exposure decreased to below 40%. The company is focused on contracted revenue projects to mitigate macro volatility.
- Challenges in Specific Assets: Cartier Energy was written down to 0.8x due to multiple operational challenges, including exposure to natural gas prices and milder winters.
Key metrics mentioned
- NAV Total Return: 14.4% (vs 8-10% target)
- Dividend Increase: 3.5% (progressive dividend policy)
- NAV per Share: 130.4p (steady increase)
- Portfolio Value: GBP 620 million (growth in invested capital)
- Liquidity Position: GBP 170 million (includes RCF and cash)
Pantheon Infrastructure PLC demonstrates strong performance and strategic asset management, exceeding NAV return targets and maintaining a robust liquidity position. The investment thesis remains positive with ongoing dividend growth and potential for new asset acquisitions. However, risks include geopolitical impacts on energy prices and challenges in specific underperforming assets. Investors should monitor the execution of new investments and the impact of macroeconomic conditions on portfolio performance.
Earnings Call Speaker Segments
Operator
OperatorGood afternoon, and welcome to the Pantheon Infrastructure plc Full Year Results Investor Presentation. [Operator Instructions] Before we begin, I would like to submit the following poll. And I would now like to hand you over to your partner, Richard Sem. Good afternoon to you.
Richard Sem
ExecutivesGood afternoon, everybody, and thank you for joining us today. We are delighted to welcome you to the PINT 2025 Annual Results Investor Presentation. Over the session, Ben and I will take you through some of the highlights. We're going to dive into the portfolio with a focus on some of the recent liquidity events, and we're also going to take a run through the financial performance over the past year. And then clearly, with the current market conditions, we're going to have a look at that and consider what the outlook might be for the year ahead. Then we're going to take some Q&A. With that, let's dive into the portfolio. So just a quick reminder in terms of what the strategy is of the business. So the strategy is to invest in a diversified portfolio of infrastructure assets, core plus assets, Western Europe, North America focus, looking to generate long-term sustainable cash flows, looking for strong downside protection and making sure that we have assets that are underpinned by either regulatory or regulatory models such that we're not overexposed to any GDP risk at this stage. The investor case is clear. 8% to 10% is our total NAV return that we set out at the outset. We're delighted to have exceeded that once the portfolio was invested -- fully invested 3 years ago. We're looking to provide an element of dividend progression, and we'll touch on that later. And looking to realize our assets after a hold period of about 5 to 7 years, so demonstrating the value within the portfolio. The wider Pantheon platform gives us a great place to be able to generate the deal flow that PINT has access to. The platform has almost $27 billion of assets under management. We're invested in over 2,000 assets, and we have limited partner advisory committee seats with about 100 of those funds or companies. So a great sourcing platform across those 60 sponsors. Over the page, maybe just sort of looking at a brief history of PINT since its launch at the back end of 2021. We fully invested the IPO proceeds and the proceeds from the C-share within the first year of the IPO and a little bit thereafter for the sub shares. You can see there the 12 -- 13 assets that we invested in initially. We've seen that portfolio compound through time. And then interestingly, we've seen the realization of Calpine more recently with the proceeds coming in at -- some of the proceeds coming in at the beginning of this year and being able to anticipate that and redeploy capital into Intersect. Again, we've only held that for a short period of time and have had some partial realization gains already quite attractive for that asset. So really demonstrating the platform at 5-year or so 5- to 7-year hold and those realizations starting to come through. On the next slide, maybe just taking you through a little bit of the track record. So we've grown the portfolio to about GBP 620 million invested, steady progression, as you can see on the top left. Dividend progression. We said we'd deliver a progressive dividend. We grew that by 3.5% last year. Very strong -- once fully invested strong portfolio performance. So you can see there, the 11% in '23, the 14.9% in 2024 and the 14.4% last year. So exceeding in every one of those years, once fully invested, that 8% to 10% target. NAV per share correspondingly increasing steadily to 130.4p. That's off the back of -- those valuation gains are off the back of a continued progression in our profitability or EBITDA, and we've continued to grow the assets, as you can see there, 1.54x the invested capital. As we think about the portfolio and key figures, you can see how we've -- this is a scale proposition. We've got 2.4 megawatts -- 2.4 gigawatts rather of renewables and energy efficiency assets. That's about 3x what it was when we set out. So we've grown that through inorganic and organic CapEx. Equally, we've got about 29 gigawatts of generation capacity. We've got 2,500 electric buses leasing to some of the bus companies around the world. Again, we've grown that over 2x since launch. Interesting fact, the 3.3 million homes that we've passed with fiber to provide, sort of, fiber connectivity, that's enough to stretch around the world 9.5x. So again, just sort of demonstrating some of the scale. And to achieve that, we've got over 100 data centers invested across the platform. As we think about PINT and how it's performed within the wider sector, I draw your attention to the NAV total returns of 45.9% over the course and the last 3 years. And that clearly is market-leading as we look at against the infrastructure AIC Index and also the Renewable Energy Infrastructure Index. So doing very well from a NAV total performance perspective and equally from a share price perspective, almost a 60% gain over the last 3 years, admittedly from a low period. So that is a brief intro to PINT. What I'd like to do is hand over to Ben, who's going to take you through the portfolio.
Benjamin Perkins
ExecutivesThanks a lot, Richard, and good afternoon, everybody. For those of you that don't know me, I'm Ben Perkins. I'm a Principal in the infrastructure and real assets team at Pantheon. I joined shortly after IPO and help with the day-to-day running of PINT. So to start with a look at the current portfolio composition, the main drivers over the last year have been the new investment into Intersect as well as the valuation gains across Calpine. The impact of that has been to increase our exposure to North America relative to Europe and U.K. and also to reduce our exposure to digital. So previously, we're around 45% in aggregate. That's now below 40%. Looking at the bottom left here, really important to us that projects are underpinned by contracted revenues. I think that's more important now than ever given the macro volatility and the geographic issues that are set to be encountered over the next year. We feel that this is -- continues to be an important part of our underwriting, making sure that it provides that downside protection. Final note on this page, we now work with 12 unique sponsors, the addition of Climate Adaptive Infrastructure or CAI through the work investing alongside. On Intersect Power, that takes up to 12. It's only DigitalBridge here we have more than 1 deal, with that's 3, but very happy with how the portfolio composition has tracked. Looking now at the individual portfolio level assets. So perhaps starting with data centers, a really encouraging year, again, growth driven principally by AI CapEx demand. So CyrusOne had its best year ever, around 0.5 gigawatts worth of bookings. We also saw on Vantage, the Stargate development that was announced. This is a JV between OpenAI and Oracle. That's around 2.5 gigawatts of compute. So really encouraging tailwinds that we continue to seize upon there. In fiber, not a huge amount to report. NBI continues to track well. They're actually nearing the end of their intervention period. So this is around 560,000 homes in rural Ireland. And they're seeing really encouraging early uptake. So very high penetration relative to what they expected. Somewhat offsetting that on Delta Fiber, we've seen slightly higher overbuild than we had expected during the underwriting phase. This has resulted into -- in a more competitive environment. It reduces the potential customers that they can take. That said, we're keenly following this company because one of the key areas where we expect to derisk is the sale of around 200,000 homes shortly pending approval from the Dutch regulator. In the towers section, one thing to flag here is that prior to the interims and previous periods, we're now scoring vertical bridge below plan. Whilst operationally, the business continues to perform very well and has seen very encouraging integration of the project Thor portfolio. The bridging finance that was used to acquire that portfolio has taken longer to syndicate with ordinary equity. We're expecting a resolution on this sometime soon, but it has necessitated the mark being held flat over the last year, which is why you can see it's been scored below plan. Deutsche Funkturm, you'll notice this used to be GD Towers. It's the German business. Really happy with how this is tracking. They've derisked a significant element of their book with the build-to-suit program that they've got with Telefonica and also the network modernization. Looking now at Power and Utilities. We've got a separate case study on Calpine, which I'm sure a lot of you are familiar with. But National Gas continues to perform very well. They had a very favorable outcome recently with the GT3 pricing control outcome with Ofgem. We're expecting a bit of upside from the valuation relating to that. They also recently announced their first hydrogen investment. So this is seen as integral for providing the backbone hydrogen network in the future, which we expect to be delivered through a regulated model and really encouraging to have seen that. We're also expecting an imminent announcement from Ofgem that hydrogen blending up to 3% will be permitted across the gas distribution and transmission networks, which again, will be seen as a great stimulus for hydrogen production and ultimately, the creation of a backbone network. And less positive news on Cartier Energy, you'll see that this asset has been written down to 0.8x. The challenges here have been a multitude of issues. There was some exposure to natural gas prices. They didn't get the renewal of one key customer, and there's also been milder winters, which has not been good for a business that sells heat. And as a result, the company has decided to reduce its growth ambitions. The reduced growth prospects have now flowed through to the valuation, which has led to that write-down to 0.8x. In Renewables, worth mentioning on Fudura, so this is our Dutch medium voltage transformer leasing business. This has been tracked from above plan to below plan, principally as a result of flat EBITDA growth over the year. We're expecting a bit of a bounce back imminently as the business seizes on an increased order book for the medium voltage transformers as well as moving to the new energy solutions. This is behind-the-meter batteries, smart meters and also rooftop solar. In the case of Zenobe, they continue to focus their rollout on battery storage as well as buses. This is one area of the portfolio that we think might actually set to fare more positively in the coming years with increased energy volatility flowing through to increased revenues. We've also got a separate case study on Intersect Power, so I won't touch upon that too much now. But finally, to wrap up on this, Primafrio over the last year has performed pretty much in line with expectations. What we do have to flag on this is that the asset does remain acutely exposed to fuel costs. It's around 30% of its overhead are linked to the cost of diesel. Clearly, in the current environment, to the extent that can't be passed on to customers, it could result in some pressure, some downward pressure on margins. Looking now specifically at Calpine. So we announced the realization or the conditional realization of Calpine last year. This is the sale to Constellation Corporation for a consideration of cash and Constellation shares. The deal, we're happy to announce, closed on the 7th of January this year. As a result of some structuring challenges, PINT amongst other Pantheon clients elected to take a distribution in kind. So this means we received slightly higher shares and slightly less cash, but that was done on a value-neutral basis. At the year-end, this was marked at a 3x. This is based on a Constellation Energy share price of around $350. That has somewhat softened, albeit the distribution in kind mechanism has meant that we now are able to actively pursue potential hedging initiatives. And now to look at Intersect. So the deal that we announced in September, shortly before the interims and then not much longer after we announced a partial realization. This actually delivered around 2.5p NAV per share uplift. We received in March, so shortly before we came to market, around $44 million in distribution, $44 million in distribution. So this means we've already received about 1.2x cost. We are also exposed here to the residual assets retained, which are called IPX Power. So this is a more simplified pipeline of conventional grid scale renewables, so solar, some wind and battery storage. we're expecting the business now to focus on the delivery of that pipeline with the expectation of a full exit within the next 12 to 24 months. Look now at the cash flow projections. So happily able to report for the year, dividend cover was 1.1x. I think we've produced and provided this exhibit before. I think we would continue to make the case that given the concentration of the portfolio and the level with which we're dependent on realizations, this is clearly subject to change. Previously, we had guided to coverage based on receiving the Calpine distributions in the year. That did not happen. We did not receive them until Q1 this year, but we were still 1.1x covered because we received a number of distributions ahead of time, notably on GD Towers and also Fudura. A couple of other things to flag. Obviously, the Intersect proceeds were received ahead of time and again, led to an increase in our 2026. We're also seeing or we're also being guided by GPs now to potential delayed exits on CyrusOne because they feel the value creation opportunity is still substantial enough and also GlobalConnect. So this is a business that had sounded out the market for a sale of its whole. It's now expected to sell -- to result in a more piecemeal liquidity profile over the coming months, over the coming years, and as a result of selling certain segments of the business as opposed to the whole business. Diving now into the key financials. So starting with a look across the discount rate. So one thing to flag here is that this is not an apples-for-apples comparison. So the 12.7% you see here is a reduction on the 13.6% last year, but that's a mechanical output. That's a mechanical impact of the fact that we have now stripped out the CEG element, which is a liquid exposure. So that discount rate is only applied to the illiquid assets, which is the rest of the portfolio and the component that was based on the cash component of the Calpine sale. In terms of gearing, tracking pretty much in line with where we were previously, a slight increase here and also in terms of the hedge debt and the fixed debt. This is as a result of the refinancings that we saw across both Fudura and GD Towers. This resulted in the distributions that we saw last year, which were offsetting the reduced distributions from Calpine. So again, we have a big focus on making sure that companies where they can mitigate interest rate exposure. And again, in the potential environment of increasing interest rates, we think that's a good defensive approach and also a critical focus. Looking now on the bottom line. So the main story, which comes out in both the top line growth and also the EBITDA is that these companies continue to grow very positively. It's the reason that we invested in them. We can see in terms of the case of EBITDA and turnover, we're now actually including the full year figures for Intersect Power, which we've now partially exited from. Again, we'll continue to produce and prepare these figures for investors, because we think that it's the best yardstick for judging how the portfolio is performing, and we think it's an endorsement of the fact that we've seen that NAV return. One thing to flag also is CapEx. So this is a really big focus of us because ultimately, high CapEx deployment is going to translate to improved performance and EBITDA going forward. A reminder that these businesses have fully funded business plans. That's through a combination of recycling cash flow that's generated on their operational footprint and also using the equity commitments that we've made but haven't been called as well as debt facilities. So really substantial CapEx outlays, and this is being principally driven by those data center investments as well as Intersect Power. A look now at how that has evolved into NAV performance. So NAV per share increased 12.3p during the period. Adding back the dividend of 4.3p was a 16.6p net uplift. The majority of that is driven clearly by underlying fair value gains of 17.6p or around GBP 80 million. Portfolio FX had a negative movement of about 0.9p, but that was more than offset by the hedge movements we saw of 1.9p. And finally, expenses of 2.1p, and that includes financing costs and broadly in line with expectations. So overall, now, the portfolio is sitting where we think very positively at a closing value of GBP 608 million. In terms of capital allocation, this has materially shifted. The balance sheet position has materially shifted post year-end. So we received around GBP 70 million in aggregate across both Intercept Power and also Calpine. So total sources available to us, including the RCF and cash is around GBP 170 million. We still maintain a very, very conservative approach to liquidity management. So you can see those buffers and the FX buffers and also the co-investment buffers, which we've spoken about before. We keep maintaining them as well as treating both our buyback program and also those uncalled equity commitments as potential immediate calls. Even net of those -- both of those things, that leaves us with roughly GBP 80 million to invest. Richard will talk through the pipeline later, but we're feeling pretty positive about the potential to deploy in potentially 2 assets, looking to upsize from our average ticket size, which is currently around GBP 35 million to around GBP 40 million. Final thing to flag here is that we recently, just before the results, announced the extension of the RCF to 2029. We also benefited from a 20 bps reduction in the drawn margin. So really encouraging to see that continued support from our lenders as well. Finally, a recap. So I look at the portfolio through a slightly different lens. We can see those really meaningful valuation gains from Intersect Power as a result of the announced sale, Calpine, partially driven by the performance at CEG and also Vantage, significant derisking of that business through the announcement of the Stargate. So you can see here how that's translating to those significant fair value gains. We also got very sizable distributions from Fudura and GD Towers, as I mentioned, complemented nicely by some distributions on NBI as well as National Gas. A provision was also taken, as I mentioned, on Cartier Energy. This was to reflect the lower growth prospects of the business and also, therefore, the lower assumed terminal value. But that remains the outlier. Again, every other asset apart from Cartier remains valued above cost. And again, it speaks to that significant outperformance on the NAV total return. With that, I'll hand back to Richard to cover the outlook.
Richard Sem
ExecutivesThanks, Ben. So it feels ever since IPO, we've been going through quite a volatile environment. If you recall, we IPO-ed in 2021 off the back of COVID, we had inflation, spiking -- the rate environment spiking. We've lived through that. We've lived through Ukraine. We've had the recent Middle Eastern conflict and I can't forget about Liberation Day last year about this time. So there's been a lot of uncertainty in the world, and that sort of is the backdrop we're working to. Infrastructure seems to perform pretty well in these volatile times. That inflation protection, the downside protection focus, and the types of assets we're investing in, trying to avoid GDP linkage, I think, has been critical in terms of being able to assemble a portfolio that delivers through these uncertain times. I think one of the upshots of this uncertainty is it typically sees a slight pullback in investment activity more generally. Buyers start to demand maybe smaller -- look for better pricing and sellers are maybe less likely to sell at that better pricing level, at that reduced pricing level. So we do see some of the exit options maybe being a little bit tighter than they have before -- been before. I think our focus on the mid-market is really important. There are just more exit opportunities there. But I also think it's a great opportunity for us to be able to deploy capital, those 2 lots of GBP 40 million or so that Ben talked about into really interesting and accretive acquisition opportunities. The disruption in the energy markets kind of next line down. Certainly, we can see that impact on inflation starting to show through in some of the recent inflation prints. Again, that focus on assets that don't have that GDP sensitivity, I think, is important, that contracted or regulatory underpinning that we're seeing inflation protection in the underlying assets. So that's where the focus is, and that's where we think the portfolio is relatively well insulated from some of that uncertainty. In terms of supply chain disruption, again, what that is leading to and not dissimilar to what we saw a couple of years -- 3 years ago is sort of increased input costs, increased inflation on salaries and wages. And what that means is the increased cost of steel of concrete starts to mean that some of the infrastructure that we're building, that we're growing within the portfolio starts to become more expensive. What we have seen because of the contractual properties of infrastructure is that we've largely been able to pass that through. And then finally, digitization and the AI revolution, plenty of column inches on this. What I would remind everybody is, we have been very focused on the adoption of cloud computing, mobile data usage, security of data, sovereignty of data. All these things have driven data center capacity and were the main thesis for a lot of our investments in the data center space. You can see they're both performing extremely well. Is there a bubble? Look, that's a little larger and wider debate. But I think rest assured, our investment thesis was off the back of some of those sort of more central business drivers within the data center market. So hyperscale, training of AI models is kind of a new sort of tailwind that we're starting to see the benefit of within the portfolio. Maybe just quickly on pipeline, highly selective in terms of the types of opportunities. You can see on the left-hand side there, we've screened over 1,000 deals, over GBP 125 billion of deal flow. We've got -- we're highly selective. We've only executed on about 4% of the deal flow that comes across the platform. So that's translated to just under GBP 5 billion or almost 60 deals. Just to give you a quick snapshot of some of the things we're looking at, you can see on the right-hand side, true to kind of the way we're thinking about the opportunity set across all the different subsectors, across the main geographies. We're also looking at an Asian renewables platform currently. We would clearly be focused on assets that come from OECD markets. And so the universe of opportunities is probably limited to just a small handful of geographies in Asia. So really pleased with the investments opportunity set. We continue to see new trades coming across the desk, several trades coming across the desk every week. We have a big team, 35 individuals, adding 5 to the team with the ability to screen, originate, execute that deal flow. And the GPs really like working with us just because of that scale, certainty and speed of execution that we're able to provide. So that pretty much takes us to the end of our formal presentation. Maybe just a quick reminder of some of the key points that we wanted to bring to your attention. So firstly, really pleased with the diversified portfolio that we've been able to assemble 14 assets performing very well in this macro uncertain environment. Strong shareholder return. We were included the FTSE 250 last year, about end of 2Q last year. So again, really pleased to see that additional shareholder support and additional liquidity coming through on the share price. Great results, 14.4% NAV total return, market beating and certainly well in excess of our 8% to 10% target that we set ourselves at launch of the IPO. And that's coming off the back of very strong EBITDA and CapEx growth within the portfolio. Strong dividend progression, 3.5% increase, as I said earlier, we've had the 2 realizations of Calpine and sort of seeing the redeployment of that into Intersect Power. And then finally, strong liquidity, which Ben took you through, so that ability to redeploy proceeds into that pipeline. I just took you through. So that kind of takes us to the end of the formal part of the presentation. I think what we'll do now is open up for Q&A.
Operator
OperatorPerfect. That's great, Richard, Ben. Thank you very much indeed for your presentation. [Operator Instructions] I would like to remind you that a recording of this presentation along with a copy of the slides and the published Q&A can be accessed via your Investor dashboard. And Richard, Ben, if I may now hand back to you to take us through the Q&A session, and I'll pick up from you both at the end. Thank you.
Benjamin Perkins
ExecutivesShould I start, Richard? So we've had a question come in about liquidity. So with over GBP 100 million of liquidity, how do you look to balance new investments with buybacks and capital returns to tighten the discount?
Richard Sem
ExecutivesSo I think I talked about sort of the opportunity set for us. We've reserved almost GBP 10 million towards buybacks. That is at the discretion of the Board. And we'll take measure of sort of where the current discount is, how PINT is trading versus the rest of the market. We are clearly and currently the best rated infrastructure company out there. So I think that gives you some sense of how we're thinking about capital allocation. It is available. We know there is strong investor demand. We've been out speaking to shareholders. The brokers are -- have continued shareholders looking to buy, institutional shareholders looking to buy, but not finding many sellers out there. And you can see the recent ramp in the share price maybe is indicative to that. We have that -- so I think the majority of that will be used to continue to reinvest just given some of the really interesting returns we're able to generate from our pipeline, but we do keep that eye with that GBP 10 million of buyback available should we require it. There's another question here. Maybe this one is for you, Ben. Which assets do you see the biggest contributors to NAV growth?
Benjamin Perkins
ExecutivesWell, I guess to start with, we've invested in assets that all have some form of a growth trajectory. So it's the thesis of PINT is to deliver NAV total return that is in excess of its dividend to seeing that growth. That said, some opportunities do offer more growth prospects than others. We mentioned before in terms of dividend cover that we like to complement more growth-oriented assets with income ones. I think where we've seen the strongest performance and where we see continued strong tailwinds is in -- certainly in digital, in the data center assets. You only have to look at the fact that both CyrusOne and Vantage had their best years last year. Once they've derisked those businesses and delivered the CapEx that underpins that book, but not built EBITDA, we would expect those marks to increase materially. Similarly, I think tapping into the adjacency to AI demand, and we saw that with Calpine. Clearly, also Intersect was a beneficiary. I think we see in our investment in Zenobe, I think we're very excited about the fact that decarbonization is a significant theme, and that's something that they're going to tap into. We also like the fiber assets. I know that we've had some challenges there, but particularly when we look at NBI and you look at it its rawest form, it's quite simple. It's can they build the network out on time? Can they get customers really encouraged to see that they're winning on both fronts there? And we see some potential to outperform there. Maybe one for you, Richard. In terms of the current climate and what we're seeing in the Middle East and what that could do to energy prices, how is that changing the way that Pantheon thinks about new deals? And is it unlocking certain sectors that are off limits or potentially ones that are more attractive?
Richard Sem
ExecutivesYes. So there's -- it's still early innings in terms of kind of how the conflict in the Middle East may play out. We think the impacts are going to be felt for quite some time into the future. Certainly, the near-term risk is around inflation, the rate environment and supply chain costs. So just being focused on assets that can navigate that macro backdrop, I think, is really important. With the increase in energy costs, Ben, you took us through the impact that will have on our cold chain logistics asset, Primafrio. There are other assets within the portfolio that may benefit from some of that potentially increased power price environment. So as you know, we've kind of lent into the power and the generation space because we see the potential upside given the new environment we're in with this just increasing demand for power based on decarbonization, based on digitization and powering some of those data centers. And frankly, some of the decentralized power opportunities as well. So those are probably the areas we're leaning into. The areas we will -- and I alluded to this earlier, some of the areas we will, I think, be a little bit more cautious around to say, airports where you've got footfall potential risk around footfall. You've got aviation fuel costs spiking and you've got the potential disruption of fuel shortages and rationing. So I think those are the assets that probably feel a little bit more exposed in the current environment. And indeed, we've seen 2 airport investments over the last year, predating the conflict, but where we felt we would need to price in some element of short-term dislocation.
Benjamin Perkins
ExecutivesYes.
Richard Sem
ExecutivesBen, we've talked about AI a little bit. I touched upon it in my section, but one of the things is, there's a lot of column inches around. Is there an AI bubble? I don't think anybody wants to forecast an AI bubble, but it would be good to hear your views on that.
Benjamin Perkins
ExecutivesYes. It's -- well, it's a great topic. It's a great question of our times. It almost feels like how are they going to monetize it. And I think it's important to take a step back and look at what PINT is investing in. So we are not investing in tech companies. We're not investing in companies that have those high R&D costs with uncertain payoffs and that are ultimately in a bit of an arms race is what it appears like. And where we are investing is in the picks and shovels, so the adjacent sectors, the data centers, the power that fuels them. And what that means is effectively, it's a defensive -- it's a more defensive access point to benefit from the AI tailwinds. We don't know how that arms race is going to unfold. What we do know is that we can -- we're invested in companies that are approaching it in a very cautious way. They're partnering with hyperscalers. So the companies like Google, Microsoft, they've got enormous balance sheets, whether their AI gambles pay off or not. I mean, I think we saw the other month, Google issued a 100-year bond. So that's a real endorsement of their creditworthiness, and it's something that fuels the fact that the companies like CyrusOne and Vantage are investing in. So we can't predict the future, but what we can do is focus on having a more conservative approach to investing in this through underwriting companies that are taking a bet on larger, more robust balance sheets. So I think we feel pretty good about it. And I think we recognize that there's a lot of CapEx going here. I think the other factor is that we still think that power is going to be the limiting factor here. We still think that there will not be enough AI capacity data centers built because of the fact that there is not enough grid capacity. And I think in terms of any concerns about oversupply, that's probably a good position to be in.
Richard Sem
ExecutivesIndeed.
Benjamin Perkins
ExecutivesWe've got a question here, Richard, also about some of the weaker assets, which I think likely refers to ones that were below plan. What's the position if these don't recover as expected?
Richard Sem
ExecutivesYes. So with the core plus strategy, we're always going to have some ups and downs on our underwriting case. These are not bonds. These -- we are taking on more risk, core plus risk than we would do, say, in some of the more super core infrastructure strategies. I think where we gain a lot of comfort is in the underwriting of making sure that we are in a capital back type scenario in a hard downside. So we are looking that existing contracts are going to pay back capital. We then have to look at the underwriting and see what do we need to believe to be able to generate the types of returns we've underwritten for all these assets. Now some assets have higher target returns than others. The 8% to 10% target is a target across the portfolio. We've certainly expect some to underperform because that's just the nature of some of the volatility, some of the uncertainty in the execution of these business plans. But what we do make sure is we've got that inflation protection. We might take some recontracting risk. We may need to take some risk on the delivery of either organic CapEx spend, build out of the portfolios. That's particularly the case for some of the data centers. That's the case for some of the fiber assets and for the Digital Tower assets. However, we're not building it and expecting kind of the business then to generate contracts. We're doing it the other way around. So we're making sure that we're getting those contracts secured and then building to suit to use the term you used earlier, Ben, to deliver that growth. There is an execution risk around delivering that CapEx growth. But again, we're comfortable that all the assets are performing well. There's a few below plan, as Ben took you through some of the details around that, but we're perfectly comfortable in terms of the overall investment proposition. Diversification is obviously important. We don't have overexposure to a single GP to a single subsector or to a single regulatory risk within the portfolio. I think that takes us to the end. So with that, I think that wraps us up. It's been a pleasure to talk through PINT's results after what's been a very successful year. We look forward to going through the half year results, the interims in Q3. But until then, goodbye from Ben and myself. Thanks.
Operator
OperatorFantastic, Richard, Ben, thank you very much indeed for updating investors today. Could I please ask investors not to close this session as you now be automatically redirected to provide your feedback, which will help the company better understand your views and expectations. On behalf of the management team, we would like to thank you for attending today's meeting, and good afternoon to you all.
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