There’s a multi-billion dollar game of musical chairs playing out across Australia’s infrastructure sector that is an unintended consequence of superannuation fund mergers.
The first one – a 12.5 per cent stake in Brisbane Airport, likely worth a few hundred million dollars – caught our eye. Capital city airport stakes are usually very tightly held, hard to get, and never intended for sale. But we reckon it is as much a case of a bit of spring cleaning out of a newly merged or growing super fund, keen to clear out some now non-core or non-meaningful stakes so it can focus on a more concentrated portfolio or larger bets.
. Both Sunsuper and QSuper had big investment books, part of which was unlisted infrastructure and things like small stakes in the aforementioned airports.But investors point out that Sunsuper and QSuper’s approaches were very different. QSuper, for example, invested heavily alongside Global Infrastructure Partners, one of the busiest buyers of Australian ports and airports and the like in the past decade. Sunsuper didn’t invest with GIP, but had relationships with other managers.
Of course, cleaning up unlisted infrastructure stakes is much harder than transitioning a big book of listed equities or highly liquid sovereign bonds. Unlisted infrastructure is illiquid, and in each case ART has a small position, often pre-emptive rights in shareholder agreements, and a bunch of other investors in the syndicates. It is also chunky enough that any incoming investor would want a proper course of due diligence.
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Source: FinancialReview - 🏆 2. / 90 Read more »