Businesses that keep the lights on

Investors prize infrastructure and utility assets. They are cash generative, predictable, expensive to build and hard to replace. Unfortunately, they’re also becoming harder and harder for investors to access as large institutional investors slowly but steadily take publicly listed assets private. Sydney Airport and Spark Infrastructure are two recent examples.

David Bartholomew was with DUET Group for 11 years (7 years as CEO, 4 years as COO) before it was subject to a takeover that saw it delisted and taken private. In that time, DUET’s market capitalisation grew from $1.3 billion to $7.5 billion and a place in the ASX 100.

Today, David holds numerous board positions on publicly listed and privately held utility and infrastructure businesses, including Atlas Arteria Group (ASX: ALX) . Within this portfolio of positions sits a role that, at face value, looks out of place. David is the Non-Executive Chairman of NASDAQ-listed Iris Energy, a 100% renewable data centre operator currently utilising its platform to mine Bitcoin (as well as exploring additional high growth use cases such as AI). It is also backed by some of Australia’s most influential investors, including Phil King's Regal Funds Management.

In two short videos, I’ll speak with David about the appeal of infrastructure assets, the economics of Bitcoin mining and the challenges and attributes that set Iris Energy apart from other Bitcoin miners.

You can watch the first video in the Series by clicking on the player below.