Europe is in the midst of an ambitious drive to modernize and expand infrastructure across key priority areas, as the region aims to boost industrialization and competitiveness, and strengthen strategic autonomy and economic security.
The drivers are manifold: following decades of infrastructure underinvestment, aging systems have constrained economic growth, while the accelerating integration of digital services, clean energy and new technologies has exposed the need for more resilient, future-ready assets and networks.
Both the European Union and member states have announced long-term plans to advance digitalization, integrate clean energy and expand electrification, and upgrade buildings, railroads and highways. The European Grids Package and Energy Highways initiatives, the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T), Germany’s Special Fund for Infrastructure and Climate Neutrality and the UK’s 10-Year Infrastructure Strategy are all ongoing chapters in this reconstruction story in Europe.
BCG has estimated that Europe needs EUR 12 trillion through 2040 to increase infrastructure capacity in energy, transport, information, nature and resources, and urban works.[1]
Fig. 1: Europe’s EUR 12 trillion infrastructure investment need through 2040
New STOXX thematic strategy
These initiatives point to a multi-year megatrend with potentially significant investment opportunities. To capture it, STOXX has introduced the STOXX® Europe Infrastructure Builders index as part of its Thematic Indices suite. The index targets companies directly involved in Europe’s large-scale infrastructure build-out, spanning construction materials and services, electrification and grid management, machinery and equipment manufacturing, metals processing, and delivery and logistics.
The index provides direct exposure to the targeted theme in a “pure-play,” Europe-focused approach that cuts along several ICB Industries. This allows it to include companies not just within the dominant Industrials sector, but also in businesses within the Basic Materials, Consumer Discretionary, and even Energy and Technology Industries.
BlackRock today listed the iShares Europe Infrastructure Builders UCITS ETF, which tracks the STOXX index.
“Thematic investing is about having a granular and precise investment allocation approach that can transcend traditional sector limitations,” said Axel Lomholt, General Manager at STOXX. “We are excited to expand our Thematics suite and our collaboration with BlackRock around this critical topic in Europe.”
Revenue-based selection for precise exposure
From the eligible universe, companies that are non-compliant based on the ISS Sustainability Norms Based Screening assessment, or that are involved in controversial weapons, are excluded. The remaining companies are selected if they generate at least 50% of revenue from a list of 126 RBICS L6 sectors associated with the targeted theme.
The STOXX Europe Infrastructure Builders index has risen 69% over the past three years, outperforming the STOXX® Europe AC Universal All Cap benchmark by 18 percentage points (Fig. 2).[2] It has also beaten the STOXX® Europe 600 Industrial Goods & Services and STOXX® Europe 600 Construction & Materials sector indices over the period.
Fig. 2: Performance
“The role of our thematic ETFs is to help investors navigate past short-term cycles to benefit from long-term structural trends,” said Omar Moufti, Thematics and Sectors Product Strategist at BlackRock. “This latest strategy gives investors targeted access to a structural growth story that is set to reshape Europe’s economy, from the ground up, by investing in companies at the center of this transformation.”
Fig. 3 shows the current top holdings in the STOXX Europe Infrastructure Builders index, which is composed of 173 stocks drawn from six ICB Industries.
Fig. 3: Top holdings
Thematic offering expanded
New investment needs in European infrastructure will continue to emerge as the continent’s economies catch up with those in North America and Asia, governments work to insulate domestic markets from external shocks, and the EU further integrates its less-developed eastern member states. Plans to rebuild Ukraine’s war-affected regions, following years of conflict with Russia, will add to this task.
The STOXX Thematic indices are designed to reflect how megatrends are reshaping markets. The STOXX Europe Infrastructure Builders index extends this offering into Europe’s multi-year infrastructure overhaul, providing targeted and systematic exposure to companies operating across the value chain of one of the region’s most significant investment themes.
[1] Source: BCG, “Infrastructure for a Competitive Europe,” October 2025.
[2] Source: STOXX. Net returns in EUR through June 26, 2026.