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3 to 5 Nov 2026Equans Infra & Mobility, the Dutch entity holding electric vehicle charging concessions owned by energy services group Equans, has been sold to a joint vehicle controlled by DigitalBridge Group (NYSE: DBRG) and Aberdeen Investments. The transaction, completed on 18 May 2026, creates an independent company operating under the new name Velian, which will focus exclusively on scaling public and private EV charging infrastructure across the Netherlands.
A Focused Carve-Out Built for Growth
The deal is a deliberate carve-out of Equans’ asset-based concession business. As a subsidiary of the Bouygues Group, Equans had signaled at its Capital Markets Day in February 2023 that it would divest asset-intensive activities to sharpen its services model. The Infra & Mobility entity, which holds charging concessions rather than installation and maintenance contracts, was identified as a natural candidate for separation.
Equans confirmed it will retain its business-to-business installation and maintenance services for EV charging equipment, meaning the operational relationship with corporate clients continues under the Equans brand even as the concession ownership transfers to Velian.
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Velian Inherits a Mature Dutch Charging Portfolio
The business now rebranded as Velian brings an established operational footprint in the Netherlands. Equans had built one of the more visible concession-based charging presences in the country, including a contract awarded in 2023 to operate approximately 4,900 public charging stations in Amsterdam in partnership with software platform provider GreenFlux. A separate concession covering 4,000 charging points in the Rotterdam area also formed part of the operational base being transferred.
Velian’s strategy spans three charging segments: public charging infrastructure, real estate charging for commercial and residential property owners, and logistics charging for freight and last-mile operators. The existing management team, led by Chief Executive Officer Ralph van Moorsel, remains in place and will continue working with the same client contacts.
Investors Bring Infrastructure Capital and European Ambitions
DigitalBridge is a global alternative asset manager focused on digital and mobility-linked infrastructure, listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The firm has been subject to a pending acquisition by SoftBank Group, announced in December 2025, which would fold it into SoftBank’s broader digital and AI infrastructure portfolio, though that deal had not closed at the time of the Velian transaction.
Aberdeen Investments is a specialist asset manager with approximately £383.3 billion under management as of 31 March 2026. Its client base spans insurance companies, sovereign wealth funds, pension funds, and family offices. The firm’s infrastructure allocation, handled through its Concession Infrastructure team, focuses on assets with long-duration, contracted revenue streams.
Neither party disclosed the financial terms of the transaction. Legal counsel for the acquirers was provided by Sidley Austin.
The Market Signal Behind the Deal
The acquisition lands in a Dutch charging market that has been growing at pace. According to the International Energy Agency’s Global EV Outlook 2025, the Netherlands held the largest national public charging network in Europe at the end of 2024, with over 180,000 public charging points, ahead of Germany and France. By January 2026, that figure had reached approximately 210,000 points, nearly triple the country’s total from five years earlier, with close to 1.2 million electric vehicles registered nationally.
Analyst projections from Mordor Intelligence put the Dutch EV charging equipment market on a trajectory to grow from around 176,000 units in 2025 to over 462,000 units by 2030, at a compound annual growth rate of approximately 21 percent. That growth curve underpins the investment thesis for a concession-based operator like Velian, whose revenues are tied directly to charging volumes rather than equipment sales.
The deal also arrives in the context of broader European policy momentum. In March 2026, the European Commission published its Clean Energy Investment Strategy, backed by more than 75 billion euros in European Investment Bank financing over three years, with transport electrification among its stated priorities.
Institutional investors have been watching the Dutch market closely after a period of volatility in European charging. The collapse of Amsterdam-based EVBox, shut down by Engie after accumulating roughly 800 million euros in losses, illustrated the risks of scaling too broadly without sustainable unit economics, as Kurrant reported at the time. Velian’s concession model, in which revenue streams are contracted rather than spot-market dependent, represents a structurally different approach to the same underlying growth opportunity.
“Transport decarbonisation is one of the defining infrastructure investment themes of this decade, and Velian sits at the heart of it. This transaction signals our conviction that scaled charging platforms will be among the most resilient and impactful infrastructure assets of the energy transition. We are proud to partner with Aberdeen Investments and the Velian team to build a platform that is as commercially compelling as it is essential to Europe’s clean mobility future,” said Christian Velasco, Managing Director at DigitalBridge, in the company’s 22 May 2026 press release.
What Comes Next for Velian
Under independent ownership, Velian has signaled it will pursue growth across all three of its target verticals. Public charging remains central, given the Netherlands’ municipal concession structure and the continued rollout of on-street infrastructure. Real estate and logistics charging, where contracted deployment at fixed sites offers more predictable utilization, are positioned as expansion priorities.
The company’s Bunnik-based headquarters will remain operational, and customer relationships will continue under existing commercial terms. Velian’s communications have emphasized continuity alongside the promise of accelerated deployment made possible by its two new institutional shareholders.
How quickly Velian moves beyond the Netherlands will be a key indicator of whether the investment thesis extends across borders. DigitalBridge’s broader infrastructure strategy and Aberdeen Investments’ European institutional network give the company access to the kind of capital typically needed to win large municipal concessions in other markets.
