Australian managers lead on infrastructure

16 July 2013
| By Mike |
image
image
expand image

Australian asset managers may struggle in conventional markets but they punch well above their weight in the infrastructure space, according to a new analysis released by Tria Investment Partners. 

The analysis, released this week, said this was because Australian infrastructure managers had enjoyed a couple of important advantages, with superannuation funds being early allocators to infrastructure and Australian Governments avid privatisers of attractive assets such as airports and some of the earlier tollroads. 

It said the Australian accent had become impossible to ignore when a recent Towers Watson list of global infrastructure managers was analysed. 

Tria said that when the list was segmented by share of pension fund assets in the main alternative asset classes of hedge funds, real estate, private equity, and infrastructure, the top 20 pension fund infrastructure managers included eight Australian managers. 

It said Macquarie Infrastructure came top of the list, followed by Industry Funds Management, AMP Capital, Hastings, RARE, CFS Global Asset Management, Access and QIC. 

The Tria analysis noted that opportunities within Australia were limited and that, as a result, the front-running players had looked offshore. 

“Ultimately the domestic opportunity is limited, and despite rapidly rising competition, a number of local managers have made the very difficult jump to a business which can acquire and manage assets offshore, and raise capital from offshore investors,” it said.  

“Particularly notable are Macquarie, which not only survived the financial crisis, but made some well-timed acquisitions and expansion moves to dominate the sector; IFM, which could easily have rested on its laurels managing local assets for Australian industry funds, but is now raising capital in Europe; and RARE, which has largely defined the global listed infrastructure securities market.”

Read more about:

AUTHOR

Recommended for you

sub-bgsidebar subscription

Never miss the latest developments in Super Review! Anytime, Anywhere!

Grant Banner

From my perspective, 40- 50% of people are likely going to be deeply unhappy about how long they actually live. ...

1 year ago
Kevin Gorman

Super director remuneration ...

1 year ago
Anthony Asher

No doubt true, but most of it is still because over 45’s have been upgrading their houses with 30 year mortgages. Money ...

1 year ago

The future of superannuation policy remains uncertain, with further reforms potentially on the horizon as the Albanese government seeks to curb the use of superannuation ...

8 hours ago

Super funds had a “tremendous month” in November, according to new data....

4 days 7 hours ago

Australia faces a decade of deficits, with the sum of deficits over the next four years expected to overshoot forecasts by $21.8 billion....

4 days 12 hours ago