We have positioned Ardian at the forefront of international efforts and industrial partnerships to develop the value chain for energy transition. ByMathias Burghardt, Head of Ardian Infrastructure and Member of the Executive Committee Ardian Infrastructure completed a diversification meant that overall performances series of strategic steps during 2020, including remained steady, distributions were realized for our first telecoms investment as well as all our Infrastructure funds and valuations grew. transactions that broaden our exposure to We benefited in 2020 from our highly diversified the green energy transition. portfolio and cautious use of leverage, as well as our policy of forming close partnerships with local Our investment in Inwit in Italy, Europe’s authorities and regulators. In Milan, this allowed us second-biggest mobile towers company, was one to secure an extension to our airport concessions to of the continent’s largest deals of 2020 and takes mitigate for the loss of traffic. Ardian into an attractive new market. In the Americas, our first dedicated fund is fully deployed We have been developing our industrial following our investments alongside Enel X to develop approach to managing infrastructure assets for many battery power storage in Canada and in a solar years. We enhanced this in 2020 with the launch of project in Central West Texas enabling our North Opta, an ambitious project to use data collection and American renewable platform to exceed 1GW analysis to improve the performance of our assets, for capacity. We made several further investments in the example by optimizing efficiency and output from our energy sector, including our first transaction in Finlandwind farms. Our investment in Wintics, which uses with Nevel, and agreed a partnership in Italy with the artificial intelligence to optimize traffic management leading utility A2A to develop jointly green hydrogen in cities, demonstrates our commitment to transform projects. Together, these moves position Ardian at the the infrastructure business model through technology. forefront of international efforts to develop the value This Augmented Infrastructure strategy will mitigate chain for energy transition. Our peers recognized obsolescence and ensure significant value creation these efforts by granting us with 2 awards: IJInvestor for our companies. Ardian Infrastructure is behaving for the Best Powers & Utilities Award for the acquisitionas best in class industrials do. of EWE and Infrastructure Investor for the Global Energy Investor of the year. During 2020 we also reorganized our team to support our growth plans for the years ahead, The Covid-19 pandemic had inevitable forming regional investment teams for Europe impacts on some assets of our portfolio, particularly and the Americas supported by global functions our airports. We worked at ensuring the requisite covering asset management, analysis, digital, data measures were in place to allow those on the ground science finan cing and syndication. We believe to work effectively and safely; we also focused on our approach to this asset class gives Ardian Infra- the protection of companies’ balance sheets. But structure a highly differentiated market position and even where the impacts of Covid-19 were greatest, represents a major step toward creating a new breed our distinctive approach to owning and managing of asset managers that combine the best financial essential infrastructure assets and now relying on and industrial expertises. 2020 ACTIVITY REPORT 93