Kate Burges investigates whether Australia’s super funds are going to abandon low-risk strategies, including infrastructure investing, to boost their returns in light of the new performance regime.

“Ross Israel, the head of infrastructure at QIC, a fund manager whose clients include Australian super funds, warns of the perils of comparing unlisted with listed infrastructure.”

“FTSE index is heavily weighted towards energy and utilities and doesn’t include newer-style categories including social infrastructure and a larger contingent of telecommunications assets – investments which have been proven to be particularly resilient during COVID-19, as demand for data and internet connectivity skyrocketed and hospitals required new investment to avoid being stretched to capacity.”

“EDHEC, an infrastructure investment index provider, produces the Infra300 index which tracks a sample of global unlisted infrastructure equity investments worth a total of approximately USD 190bn. QIC’s Israel suggests this collection of unlisted assets would be a better basis for comparison.”

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