Whitehelm launches infrastructure fund in Australia
Whitehelm Capital, an infrastructure investment specialist, has launched an Australia-domiciled version of its Europe-based Listed Core Infrastructure Fund.
The new Australian Whitehelm Listed Core Infrastructure Fund – Unhedged would be a benchmark unaware strategy aimed to return OECD CPI plus 5% per annum with a minimum investment of $10,000.
The firm said the fund would be investing in global core infrastructure assets such as airports, toll roads and rail roads as well as water, gas and electricity utilities.
However, it would avoid any investments in power producers and retailers with exposure to volume and pricing risk and it would not invest in sectors such as logistics and shipping companies with typically low margins and more volatile earnings.
“The fund aims to be the ideal defensive component of a balanced retail investor’s portfolio. It is more defensive than listed property and most global peer funds. The fund also offers greater risk diversification and a lower correlation to broad equity markets than most peer funds, with a low 0.6 beta to global stocks markets, and a high degree of drawdown protection,” Whitehelm’s Canberra-based portfolio manager, Ursula Tonkin, said.
“All of these factors, along with its stable cash yield make it a very attractive vehicle for retail investors.”
Whitehelm, which is an independently-owned specialist infrastructure manager with more than 60 staff in Australia and Europe, and has currently $4.9 billion in funds under management and $18.1 billion of funds under advice.
The firm was 70% owned by staff and 30% owned by Fidante Partners, the boutique funds management business of Challenger Limited.
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