Ecofin Global Utilities and Infrastructure Trust : Interim Report 2021

Ecofin Global Utilities

and Infrastructure Trust plc

Interim Report 2021

Contents

1. Financial Highlights
2. Chairman's Statement
3. Investment Manager's Report

1. Ten Largest Holdings

1. Portfolio Analysis
2. Portfolio Holdings
3. Condensed Statement of Comprehensive Income
4. Condensed Statement of Financial Position
5. Condensed Statement of Changes in Equity
6. Condensed Statement of Cash Flows
7. Notes to the Condensed Financial Statements

1. Interim Management Report

1. Directors' Responsibility Statement
2. Glossary

1. Alternative Performance Measures
2. Company Information

NAV and share price total returns

from admission to 31 March, 2021

240
220
200
180
160
140
120
100
09/2016	03/2017	09/2017	03/2018	09/2018	03/2019	09/2019	03/2020	09/2020	03/2021

		Ordinary Share NAV (total return)		Ordinary Share price (total return)

Financial Highlights

as at 31 March, 2021

Ecofin Global Utilities and Infrastructure Trust plc (the "Company") is an authorised UK investment trust whose objectives are to achieve a high, secure dividend yield on a portfolio invested primarily in the equities of utility and infrastructure companies in developed countries and long-term growth in the capital value of the portfolio while preserving shareholders' capital in adverse market conditions.

• During the six months ended 31 March, 2021, the Company's net asset value ("NAV") per share increased by 13.5% on a total return basis. The Company's share price increased by 16.1% on a total return basis over the six months
• Two quarterly dividends were paid during the six months totalling 3.30p per share. Based on the price of the Company's shares as at 31 March, 2021, the dividend yield (annualised) was 3.6%
• The Company is continuing to issue new shares at a premium to NAV in response to investor demand. During the half-year, £10.3 million of shares were issued and another £0.4 million of shares have been issued since the end of March
• To ensure that cost ratios keep declining as the Company grows, a tiered management fee has taken effect from 1 April, 2021: 1% per annum of NAV on the first £200 million and 0.75% per annum of NAV thereafter

Summary	As at or six months to	As at or year to
31 March 2021	30 September 2020
Net assets attributable to shareholders (£000)	184,319	156,393
NAV per share1	183.31p	164.60p
Share price (mid-market)	181.50p	159.25p
Discount to NAV1	1.0%	3.3%
Revenue return per share	1.82p	4.97p
Dividends paid per share	3.30p	6.55p
Dividend yield1,2	3.6%	4.1%
Gearing on net assets1,3	15.9%	14.8%
Ongoing charges ratio1,4	1.46%	1.48%

1. Please refer to Alternative Performance Measures on page 22.
2. Dividends paid (annualised) as a percentage of share price.
3. Gearing is the Company's borrowings (including the net amounts due from/to brokers) less cash divided by net assets attributable to shareholders.
4. The ongoing charges figure is calculated in accordance with guidance issued by the Association of Investment Companies ("AIC") as the operating costs (annualised) divided by the average NAV (with income) throughout the period.

Performance for periods	6 months	1 year	3 years	Since admission on
26 September 2016
				5
to 31 March 2021	%	%	%	%
NAV per share total return6, A	13.5	30.5	57.8	58.1
Share price total return6, A	16.1	33.4	82.6	98.4
Indices (total returns in £):
S&P Global Infrastructure Index	10.6	22.2	16.8	15.3
MSCI World Utilities Index	2.7	9.7	36.0	33.2
MSCI World Index	12.1	39.1	48.3	69.8
FTSE All-Share Index	18.5	27.1	9.9	20.1
FTSE ASX Utilities Index	6.5	5.9	25.6	-0.5

1. The Company was incorporated on 27 June, 2016 and its investment activities began on 13 September, 2016 when the liquid assets of Ecofin Water & Power Opportunities plc ("EWPO") were transferred to it. The formal inception date for the measurement of the Company's performance is 26 September, 2016, the date its shares were listed on the London Stock Exchange.
2. Total return includes dividends paid and reinvested immediately. Please also refer to the Alternative Performance Measures on page 22. A. Alternative Performance Measurement ("APM")

Ecofin Global Utilities and Infrastructure Trust plc Interim Report 2021

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Company The

Financials

Information Company

Chairman's Statement

Performance

I am delighted that your Company has started the current financial year very well. The Company's net asset value (NAV) per share increased by 11.4% during the half-year to 31 March, 2021 and, including the reinvestment of dividends paid, the total return was 13.5%. The price of the Company's shares increased by 14.0% and the total return on the shares was 16.1%. Over the six months, in sterling terms, the MSCI World Utilities Index and the S&P Global Infrastructure Index recorded total returns of 2.7% and 10.6%, respectively.

Global equity markets and the Company's listed infrastructure sub-sectors were strong but volatile across the period. Utilities and renewables stocks led portfolio gains until there was a sharp upswing in US bond yields in early 2021 as confidence in economic recovery surged. This led to a sector rotation as investors sought shares which had been most negatively impacted by a year of lockdowns: the portfolio's more cyclical transportation services holdings were boosted at the expense of the stock market winners of 2020.

Your Company continues to build its strong track record: from our launch nearly five years ago to 31 March 2021, NAV and share price total returns have been 10.7% and 16.4% per annum, respectively.

Dividends

The Company announced an increase in the annual dividend rate to 6.6p per share (1.65p per quarter) in December 2019, just before the COVID-19 pandemic began. Your Board is very pleased that the dividend rate has been maintained since then even though the Company's investment income fell during the early stages of the pandemic. Our income is now recovering, and income from investments and net revenue per share during the half-year under review were significantly greater than in the comparable period last year.

Share issuance

The Company is continuing to issue new shares at a premium to NAV in response to investor demand. During the half-year, 5,535,000 new shares were issued and another 190,000 shares have been issued since the end of March. We will continue to issue shares when possible (when the shares are trading at a premium to NAV) as we believe that this will increase liquidity in the shares, foster participation by new investors and reduce cost ratios.

Investment Manager's fee

To ensure that cost ratios continue to fall as the Company grows, we have agreed a tiered management fee as follows with effect from 1 April, 2021: 1% per annum of the Company's NAV on the first £200 million and 0.75% per annum of NAV thereafter, payable quarterly in arrears.

Company Secretary, Auditor, Depositary

After years of first-rate services provided by BNPP as Company Secretary and EY as Auditor, we have now moved to new suppliers. BNPP no longer provides corporate secretarial services to external clients and EY's contract was due for rotation under the regulations. Following competitive processes, the Company has appointed Maitland as Company Secretary and BDO as Auditor.

Citibank Europe plc ("Citibank"), acting through its UK branch, is the Company's Depositary. As a result of Brexit and consequent regulatory changes, Citibank is transferring its depositary services for UK funds to an entity incorporated and authorised in the UK, Citibank UK Limited. Subject to regulatory approvals, this change in the legal entity acting as Depositary for the Company should occur in the second half of 2021.

Covid-19

With lockdowns persisting during the half-year, the Company's third-party service providers continued to work from home without any disruption to service or impact on quality or communications.

Board

As mentioned in my last Statement, our esteemed colleague Martin Nègre retired from the Board with effect from the AGM held in March. The Board thanks Martin for his invaluable contribution as a Director since the inception of the Company.

Outlook

Between 31 March and 18 May, the reported NAV declined from 183.3p to 182.0p (-0.7%) and the share price from 181.5p to 180.0p (-0.8%). However, on a total return basis which takes into account the most recent dividend, they both increased slightly (NAV +0.2%; share price +0.2%). Equity markets remain volatile while the path to a post-Covid world is being built around vaccines and vast amounts of fiscal stimulus. Bond yields have recovered from their pandemic lows and the Investment Manager's report discusses how this is impacting the portfolio and strategy.

Government policies to reinvigorate economic growth and reduce carbon emissions are driving increasingly ambitious programmes for the energy transition which continue to create attractive investments for your Company. Our investment manager is also seeing increased opportunities in other infrastructure areas.

David Simpson

Chairman

20 May, 2021

02 Ecofin Global Utilities and Infrastructure Trust plc Interim Report 2021

Investment Manager's Report

Markets and performance

The Company's NAV increased by 13.5% during the half-year. Even though the portfolio was not immune to market swings, it was a successful period in terms of stock selection with some strong performances by large holdings in each region of the portfolio and with no lagging names causing lasting trouble. Building upon 2020's results which highlighted the portfolio's overall resilience to the pandemic, several names - including Covanta, Exelon, and Engie - announced strategic reviews which we had hoped would emerge, and others - including EDF, National Grid, Veolia and Drax - announced or continued to pursue what we consider to be value-accretive M&A. These were discussed in our monthly updates as they are markers of how quickly a variety of utilities are reshaping their asset portfolios to deliver on decarbonisation and sustainability commitments. More details are provided in the investment summaries for the largest portfolio holdings on pages 5 and 6.

This was achieved against a background of equity markets continuing their erratic rebound from the early 2020 coronavirus-induced slump. The MSCI World Index rose by 12.1% (total return in sterling terms) as the economic data and outlook improved in line with the roll-out of vaccinations. Copious fiscal stimulus improved sentiment and growth forecasts but have led to concerns about future inflation.

As a result, US and other bond yields rose sharply from rock-bottom levels though not enough to undermine the businesses of our sectors or the attractiveness of their yield.

With a Biden presidency improving the prospect of the US assuming a leadership role in the global energy transition, major renewables names in the portfolio were extremely strong performers until the end of 2020, benefitting as well from strong ESG-related fund flows. The first quarter of 2021 brought a setback as fund flows switched out of high growth and clean energy 'winners' into cyclical recovery plays. This coincided with an upswing in economic indicators and commodity prices, sparking fears of inflationary pressures and causing a sharp sell-off in bonds, especially in the US. Despite the fundamental support for utilities from structural growth trends as well as stronger commodity and power prices, utilities' shares were sold off indiscriminately but recovered as bond yields plateaued. Although the absolute level of longer term rates is not concerning, as yields are only getting back to pre-pandemic levels, the sector does tend to have an adverse reaction when the speed of change is quick as risk-free rates are an important component of cost of capital assumptions that investors use to discount future growth.

Another ingredient causing some disquiet among renewables is the intensifying competition from oil and gas companies seeking to diversify but the opportunity set keeps increasing. In offshore wind, for instance, the new US administration has committed to expanding offshore wind capacity to 30GW by 2030. This adds to about 200GW of official capacity targets worldwide by 2030, implying a more than eight-fold increase in capacity over the next decade. Stronger energy commodity

prices supported power prices during the half-year while the carbon price in Europe reached successive new highs. It was nearly €43/mt by the end of March, some 32% higher than at the beginning of this year and 100% higher than a year ago.

The largest positive contributors to net assets growth over the half-year included Chinese wind operators China Longyuan Power and China Suntien Green Energy, US environmental services company Covanta, Drax and SSE in the UK, and North American clean power specialists Brookfield Renewable and TransAlta Renewables. Together, these contributed approximately 7.5% to the growth in NAV, showing continuing strong representation by our high conviction positions in renewables majors and companies transitioning in that direction. During the pronounced market rotation mid-Q1 which favoured last year's market laggards, mostly cyclicals and value stocks, the portfolio's exposure to energy infrastructure (Williams) and transportation services (ENAV, for example) proved their diversification purpose. Pure regulated names were not particularly weak but they did get left behind in the market rallies.

Sterling rose by approximately 6.5% over the six months against the US dollar and the Euro. This dampened portfolio returns by just over 6.0%.

Purchases & sales

During the half-year, usually due to macro-driven market volatility, we found good opportunities to add to holdings, most notably Iberdrola, Endesa, Dominion, NextEra Energy, NextEra Energy Partners, Edison International, SSE, A2A, Atlas Arteria and Ferrovial. We also established several new positions:

Eversource is an electric, gas and water utility operating in the Northeast of the US. We are particularly interested in the company's joint venture with Orsted to develop a major offshore wind platform in the Northeast. We expect decisive support from the Biden administration and a growth acceleration in the US's nascent offshore wind sector to support the company's medium-term growth trajectory, with significant auctions this year offering the partnership multiple opportunities to prop up their portfolio, which already includes three projects.

China Suntien Green Energy is a developer and operator of wind capacity (4.3GW) and involved in gas transmission and distribution and other renewables. The company is planning to build an LNG terminal in Hebei (where it already supplies 20% of the province's gas demand) which will handle 5mn tonnes of LNG by the end of 2022. The shares were considered to be undervalued and have an attractive yield, and Suntien should be a beneficiary of the switch from coal to gas in a very polluted region.

Veolia has been held previously in the portfolio and was reintroduced when it confirmed it was bidding for its main competitor Suez, having secured Engie's c. 30% stake in Suez. We invested in expectation that the deal would succeed and

Company The

Financials

Information Company

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