Servitized industrial machinery as a new real asset for institutional investors

Abstract: The increased penetration of servitization is an ongoing trend within the industrial machinery space. This typically means that industrial machinery manufactures themselves retain ownership of the machinery they manufacture whilst also taking over maintenance operations. Essentially, offering customers a netresult. Servitization has several documented benefits for both customers and manufactures. Forcustomers it offers certainty in terms of operationality and costs. Whilst for manufacturers it generates stability in revenue generation and increasingly ties customers closer to their orbit. On a different note, record low interest levels coupled with developments within asset management such as the endowment model has resulted in that institutional investor such as pension funds have redirected capital towards alternative assets such as non-listed real assets. The shift has been so profound that many are struggling to find attractive real assets and thus institutional capital is looking for new types of real assets. Servitization and institutional investment has largely existed in separate silos. The study has studied an intersection of these two domains and has firstly found that servitized industrial machinery has several core attributes clearly align with infrastructure. These traits include non-cyclical and long-term revenue, long(er) lifetime, quasimonopolistic, and environmental benefits. The study indicates that as servitization becomes more widespread, industrial manufactures realize that servitization will result in more deployed capital. Therefore, companies will need to find new forms of financing for their servitization operations. From a financing point of view, companies prefer debt-based financing such as asset backed securities such that operational control can still be had. The study found that the core attributes of servitization and its closeness to infrastructure is appealing for institutional investors and see it as a possible future real asset investment class however, institutional investors feel unsure how to properly gauge the longevity of specific types of industrial machinery. Institutional investors who participated in the study have almost exclusively invested in real asset through equity. However, in regard to the financing of servitized industrial machinery, investors are also willing to invest via debt, if the expected returns justify the risk taken. The study indicates that there is a clear linkage between servitized industrial machinery and infrastructure whilst also demonstrating a substantial interest from industrial machinery manufacturers and institutional investors to engage with each other for the financing of servitized industrial machinery going forward.