Building Infrastructure Resilience

Overview

Many investors are looking for greater optionality and diversification as the risks around stubborn inflation, lower growth and overexposure remain. Infrastructure needs almost $64 trillion of investment over the next 25 years. That’s equivalent to 1.7% of global GDP per year. Emerging markets account for $43 trillion of this, reflecting their greater development needs and typically faster economic growth.1

Many of these markets are blessed with abundant natural resources – solar, wind and gas – that are necessary for the global energy transition and they are well-placed to deliver attractive yields. They also need the build out of transmission, distribution, and storage that must accompany renewable-heavy base loads.

Taken together, this infrastructure represents both a huge investment opportunity and a means of large-scale decarbonisation.

For many investors who have experienced this opportunity and its powerful returns profile, the question now is no longer whether to invest, but how to create resilient assets.

Recent disruptions show how swiftly value can be lost when critical infrastructure fails.

On 28 April 2025, a massive power outage disrupted electricity supply across Spain, Portugal, and parts of southern France, affecting over 60 million people. Spain abruptly lost approximately 15 GW of electricity—about 60% of its total consumption at that moment.

On 16 April 2024, unprecedented rains and flooding in Dubai brought major roads to standstill and forced a closure of the international airport. The CEO of Emirates estimated the event cost the airline $110 million in damages.1

In early 2025, a major grid disruption in Chile caused a country-wide blackout. These outages were once unprecedented but are becoming more frequent. They are a stark reminder of how reliant we are on critical infrastructure, the widespread impact of disruption on people, and the financial cost of failing to build resilience. Infrastructure does fail from time to time and for various reasons, so resiliency – minimising how often failure can
occur – must be central to how we invest and operate.

Building resilience – whether for power or other critical infrastructure – is fundamental for many reasons. It allows for continuity in delivering essential services – power, data and transport to economies, countries and their citizens. It also protects value in the assets we own and operate, as well as returns for investors, while maximising the potential for an exit given buyers will always look to stress test assets for their next time horizon. This is particularly important when considering climate risk to maximise safety and minimise insurance premiums from rising.

Assets that stay online through floods, fires or grid shocks keep communities functioning, reinforce an operator’s social licence, and protect investor interests. In this paper, we look at how investors in infrastructure assets such as data centers, toll roads, power and utilities can build resilience to climate change and other risks.

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SOURCE: 1. https://www.aberdeeninvestments.com/en-us/investor/insights-and-research/how-large-are-global-infrastructure-needs-us

Disclaimer

The examples, key developments and statements of investment potential given herein are presented for discussion purposes only. There can be no assurance that Actis will be successful in implementing its current priorities or sustainability plan. There can be no assurance that investments would be profitable or avoid substantial losses.

General discussions contained in this document regarding the market or market conditions represent the view of either the source cited or Actis. Such information is not research and should not be treated as research. Moreover, there is no assurance historical trends will continue.

Risk management through infrastructure asset resilience seeks to mitigate risk but does not eliminate risk and does not protect against losses. An investment in a Fund involves risk of loss of an investor’s entire investment in the Fund.