Industrials: Building for the future 

The built environment is often equated with construction. It is so much more. Smart buildings and technology are transforming our environment, and their adoption is driven by regulation and climate change. There are so many components that go into smart buildings, and these continue to attract mid-market investor attention.

One example is installing a lift in a smart building: you’ll need engineers for the installation work; consultants to advise on how many lifts, footfall, their load and capacity; software to run and monitor the lifts; specialists on energy consumption; and facilities management to monitor and maintain them. A question for those providers is how deep do they specialise and what services can be joined up to offer a comprehensive solution to their customers?

A large underlying market…

In recent years, assets operating in the built environment have been out of favour because of the preconception that performance is linked to construction cycles. This does not take into consideration that UK infrastructure is ageing and there’s a huge amount of refurbishment going on. What better time to convert these buildings into smarter, greener buildings? And there’s a large installed base. Even if landlords are not planning to do anything smart with a building; buildings need to be maintained, monitored, and meet regulations.

… connected to our infrastructure

It is also important to consider how buildings are integrated into their surrounding environment and technology can support more efficient and high-quality service connectivity. This could be from the water pipes to the need to install EV charging stations. We see opportunities for companies that can help landlords monitor and manage the health of their assets from the outside in.

Here are three areas where mid-market in PE is successfully creating value in smart buildings:

Geospatial: There has been a significant increase in uptake of geospatial technology in the last six years. It is now considered a critical element in projects across sectors and is used at scale in areas ranging from marketing of real estate to EHS (Environmental, Health & Safety). Adoption and opportunity vary by sector with significant potential for growth in the slower adoption sectors like construction and engineering.  Read our recent article about what is driving growth here.

TICC: Preventative maintenance and condition monitoring continues to attract investors to TICC. There are lots of small TICC specialists, read our article here on how to find the value in them.

Facilities Management: There has been recent activity in the FM sector and investors will need to understand how their assets fit into the broader build environment trends. Successful companies will need to take the lead in making buildings greener and more efficient. Read our article on the opportunities (and tough decisions) facing facilities management providers here.

Please get in touch with a member of the team if you would like to discuss opportunities in industrials and the built environment. 

Brandon Matthews

[email protected]
+44 7771 401 723