Actis plans to invest in central and eastern Europe across its energy, long life infrastructure and digital strategies.

The ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict has disrupted energy supply to central and eastern Europe but far from spooking investors, the crisis has managed to boost interest in the market amid a push from governments for energy security.

One such investor, Actis, believes that the CEE presents a significant opportunity and seeks to deploy more capital into the region, building on existing investments such as renewables developer Rezolv Energy, and telecommunications tower portfolio Connectis Tower.

“Geopolitics has increased the scrutiny in the CEE region but has also reinforced the strategic rational for investment,” Jaroslava Korpanec, Managing Director and Head of CEE, Infrastructure, told Infralogic.

“For disciplined investors with a local presence, knowledge of the local market and developed stakeholder relationships, we believe the CEE presents an opportunity rather than a deterrence,” said Korpanec, herself a Czech national.

The proof: mergers and acquisitions last year in the CEE region were at record levels despite the geopolitical concerns. Transaction volumes in the region rose over 22% compared to 2024, while cross‑border deal value was at EUR 32.2bn in 2025, according to a report from law firm CMS.

“The CEE region has historically been under invested and the need to drive decarbonisation as well as to invest in independent energy supply is absolutely crucial,” Korpanec added.

Renewables still account for a relatively low share of the overall energy mix in CEE, with many countries relying heavily on coal for their energy needs.

As electricity prices remain elevated, exposing decades of underinvestment in power grids, energy storage and flexibility, the need for private investments in the sectors becomes imperative, Actis believes.

The higher electricity prices in the region as compared to various other markets, also appeals to other European investors. For instance, Finnish investment manager Taaleri said in its 2025 annual report that it is increasingly targeting renewables in CEE, where prices are higher than the Nordics given the earlier stage of renewables development.

Korpanec joined Actis to lead its new CEE strategy in September 2022 from Allianz, where she already had experience in the region having led investments in gas transmission and distribution networks in the Czech Republic.

Since joining Actis, she led investments in Rezolv and Connectis, which is the first independent telecom tower company operating in the Balkans.

London-headquartered Actis invests in the Americas, Africa, Asia and Europe in sectors including energy and digital infrastructure, transport, real estate and private equity. The real estate and private equity arms are dwarfed by the infrastructure segments.

Actis was set up two decades ago but since 2024 has been part of US-based global investment manager General Atlantic, an acquisition which created a global manager with USD 108bn in assets under management. Actis operates now as General Atlantic’s sustainable infrastructure business.

Following a push in the CEE region in 2022, Actis is looking forward to replicating its global investment strategy, both in the energy and digital sectors.

“Apart from the strategic priority for investments in energy, data sovereignty has also become significant and thus there is a focus from Actis to invest in digital assets too,” Korpanec said.

In addition to various infrastructure sectors, Actis is also bullish on what Korpanec calls the convergence markets in CEE like Romania and Bulgaria, which are not yet fully integrated with the rest of Europe in terms of the EU decarbonisation targets but are set to offer the highest growth in the CEE region.

Actis plans to invest in the region across its energy, long life infrastructure and digital strategies. In the energy segment, Actis invests out of its flagship energy focused funds and is currently fundraising for Actis Energy 6 with a target of around USD 6bn.

It also has the Actis Long Life Infrastructure strategy and last year raised USD 1.7bn for the second fund in this series, also launching its debut digital infrastructure vehicle to invest in data centres in its key markets.

Creating sizeable energy platforms

Actis invested in Rezolv in June 2022 from its USD 6bn energy investment vehicle Actis Energy 5 with an aim to provide subsidy-free Clean Energy through long-term contracts to commercial and industrial users, and other off-takers across the CEE region.

Rezolv was its first investment in Europe.

Last year in December, UAE-based investment fund Mubadala committed about EUR 300m to join Actis in backing Rezolv.

The Prague-headquartered platform over the past five years has grown to own an over 2 GW clean energy portfolio including wind, solar and battery energy storage systems (BESS) across sites in Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, and North Macedonia.

Rezolv owns large utility scale renewables projects in the CEE such as the more than 1 GW Dama solar project, a 450 MW onshore wind project and a 90 MW BESS project in Romania. Other projects in the region being developed by the company include the 229 MW St George solar farm in Bulgaria.

Other segments of the energy market where Actis could create different platforms in the CEE include power grids, energy storage, and flexibility, Korpanec said.

The grid investment opportunity

With an expected large growth in the renewable energy development and urgent need for modernising the power grids, the CEE region needs significant investment in transmission and distribution infrastructure.

Korpanec pointed to a few countries such as Romania, Bulgaria and Poland in the region which have a struggling grid system and where there is a significant need for investments in the grid networks.

In Poland, where the grid is owned by the government, the transmission infrastructure has not improved in line with the massive growth of renewables capacity, which was close to 38 GW by the end of last year from around 14 GW in 2020. The country’s grid infrastructure, designed for centralized fossil-fuel generation, struggles with renewables integration. In 2024, connection requests for 74 GW of theoretical capacity were declined – more than the entire Polish system’s capacity of 72 GW – according to a report.

With renewables output set to continue growing from the current relatively low proportions of the overall energy mix in Poland and other markets, there will be no shortage of opportunities for Actis to invest as it continues to implement its CEE strategy.