Retail gets bigger slice of the pie

AMP Capital Investors has announced the launch of a new hybrid infrastructure fund, which will give retail investors the opportunity to invest in a range of global infrastructure sectors.

Portfolio manager AMP Capital Mar Beltran said this will be the first time AMP has offered the retail market access to its infrastructure fund, which will give them access to infrastructure assets that institutional investors have benefited from for years.

“This is an opportunity for retail investors to invest in a well-diversified infrastructure fund that offers access to a wide range of quality infrastructure assets,” she said.

According to Beltran, the fund will invest in listed and unlisted infrastructure to provide the potential for stable income, liquidity and long-term capital growth.

“We structured the AMP Capital Core Infrastructure Fund to be a strategic blend of 50 per cent listed infrastructure securities and 50 per cent unlisted infrastructure assets to provide investors with a higher level of liquidity than is generally associated with unlisted infrastructure investments,” she said.

“In terms of infrastructure in investment portfolios, we examined returns over seven years of infrastructure securities and unlisted infrastructure. The results showed that strategic blending of unlisted and listed infrastructure optimised a portfolio’s risk adjusted returns.”

Beltran said that unlisted assets will be acquired directly and through AMP Capital’s wholesale Infrastructure Equity Fund.

The fund has secured an initial amount of $10 million in the equity fund, which includes assets such as aged health care provider, Principal Healthcare, and the M5 Motorway. There are also plans to invest $20 million in Australia Pacific Airports Corporation, which owns a 99-year lease on Melbourne’s Tullamarine Airport.