Infrastructure (listed and unlisted)
Investment in long-life physical assets — toll roads, airports, power transmission, water utilities. Listed-infrastructure access via global indexes; unlisted infrastructure via specialist funds.
Infrastructure as an asset class covers long-life physical assets that produce stable cash flows over decades: toll roads, airports, ports, power transmission and distribution, regulated water and gas utilities, renewable-energy generation, and digital infrastructure (data centres, fibre networks, towers).
NZ retail managed funds access infrastructure in two main ways. Listed infrastructure is bought through global infrastructure indexes (FTSE Global Core Infrastructure, S&P Global Infrastructure) and behaves more like an equity sub-sector — same listed liquidity, similar but distinct return drivers to broad equities. Unlisted infrastructure is bought through specialist closed-end or evergreen funds, with longer holding periods, lower liquidity, and valuation based on periodic appraisal rather than daily market.
In NZ diversified-multi-asset SIPOs, infrastructure is sometimes a separate sleeve and sometimes nested inside the growth-asset or alternatives allocation. The PDS and SIPO state the specific shape used by each fund.
Related terms
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REITs · A-REITs
Listed property
Listed shares in property trusts and property-investment companies (REITs). Treated as a growth asset in NZ retail diversified-fund SIPOs, with higher dividend yield than broad equities.
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asset-allocation
Asset allocation
The percentage split of a fund's portfolio across asset classes: equities, fixed interest, listed property, cash, alternatives. Drives the fund's risk and return profile more than security selection.
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SIPO
Statement of Investment Policy and Objectives (SIPO)
The fund-manager document setting out the fund's investment objectives, strategy, asset-allocation ranges, derivative use, hedging, rebalancing and exclusion rules — filed on FMA Disclose and binding on the manager.