Speakers:
Robin Brown, managing director of HSBC (Moderator)
Kok-Chye Ong, executive vice president of corporate development, DayOne Data Centers
Nirad Deshpande, associate director, Macquarie Asset Management
Claire Alembik, investment specialist- Asian Development Bank (ADB)
During a recent panel discussion at ITW Asia 2025, industry experts explored capital flows, hot zones for investment and strategies for navigating complex regional markets.
Hot zones and high-growth segments
Nirad Deshpande, associate director, Macquarie Asset Management highlighted the growing share of digital infrastructure in investment portfolios.
“When we started investing in this region, maybe 10-15 years back, digital infrastructure was not a big factor in the portfolio, it was the more classical infrastructure, like ports and power. But what we’ve seen over the last couple of vintages of our funds has been almost 30, 40% of our investment is in digital infrastructure,” Deshpande said.
“It just feels very secular in terms of opportunity. From our perspective, even going forward, digital infrastructure was prominently figured in our overall portfolio conversation in terms of alpha creation.
As a result, for Macquarie Asset Management, it’s a very big focus on building platforms, he revealed.
Meanwhile, Kok-Chye Ong, executive vice president of corporate development, DayOne Data Centers, emphasised how operators are approaching underserved markets.
“In terms of investment across asset classes, we look at how we can differentiate ourselves from constipated economies where employees very can be having a strong, competitive advantage in the markets that we compete in having a mixture of different markets with to provide investors with diversity and coverage, and more importantly having an excellent customer.”
Defining ROI: What’s driving investor confidence and infrastructure investment decisions?
Investor confidence, Deshpande noted, is often shaped by long-term secular trends and platform-building opportunities.
“It’s a very, very secular trend from our perspective, where there’s a clear dynamic around increased connectivity, increased data consumption, now with AI workloads coming in as well, more compute requirements. It just feels very secular in terms of opportunity,” he said.
Meanwhile, Claire Alembik, investment specialist at ADB highlighted sustainability and inclusion as additional dimensions of ROI.
“In the world today, 2.6 billion people are unconnected. We develop this type of digital infrastructure so that it doesn’t actually increase the digital divide, only going to cities or companies that already have access to nice tools. We want to make sure that is actually, you know, reducing that divide.”
Barriers vs. enablers: What challenges do investors face in scaling infrastructure and where are the green lights?
Deshpande highlighted the opportunities and challenges in South and Southeast Asia.
“It so naturally happens that this is the region with the largest population and also one of the most underserved regions in the world. You’ve got more than a billion people in India and over 300 million in Indonesia, and it’s a largely young population with massive consumption of data.
“These are also the regions most underserved in terms of infrastructure- whether it’s fiber-to-the-home, tower capacity per capita, or data centres, where large-scale adoption still hasn’t happened.
Alembik continued: “Our focus at ADB is really on markets that are underserved right now. Of course, we see major opportunities in regions like South Asia, as you mentioned, because of the large, connected populations and rapid urbanisation.
The Pacific is also a priority for us due to its geographic isolation and vulnerability to climate and disaster risks. We’re also increasingly focused on Central Asia, where we’re seeing the emergence of new data centres being built. We recently closed a deal with a tower company in Tajikistan as well.”
Partnerships and co-investment models: What new collaboration strategies are opening doors for innovation and faster market entry?
Ong emphasised that partnerships are essential for operating in Asia.
“Asia is a pretty complicated market to enter. Each country has its own nuances and challenges, which makes the region very different from investing in Europe or the US. At Day One, we build layered partnerships- not just with government investors, but also with various organisations to improve training and workforce readiness.
“In many of the markets we develop, such as Malaysia, you may have land and power, but you don’t necessarily have the people or the resources needed to deliver that capacity. So at Day One, we’ve been investing in building human capability. That’s one example of a partnership model that goes beyond purely financial or commercial transactions.
“On the financial side, we have multiple partnerships across the region. One example is our collaboration with INA, the Indonesia Investment Authority, where we work together to explore opportunities in Indonesia. This is a case where Day One stands on the shoulders of giants in their own markets, because we need access to land and power to deliver projects on time.”
“That’s largely the work of our public-sector colleagues. They’re now developing an investor’s guidebook to clarify processes and incentives,” Alembik concluded.
