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Specialist in Asia Pacific, Japan, China, India and South East Asia and Global Emerging Market equities.

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Stewart Investors manage investment portfolios on behalf of our clients over the long term and have held shares in some companies for over 20 years. They launched their first investment strategy in 1988.

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Important Note Click to maximise

Please read the following important information for First Sentier Global Listed Infrastructure Fund

• The Fund invests primarily in global listed infrastructure and infrastructure-related equity securities or equity related securities worldwide. Investments in infrastructure projects may involve risks including projects not being completed on time and within budget, changes in environment laws and regulations.

• The Fund’s investments may be concentrated in a single and limited/specialist sector or in fast growing economies which may have higher volatility or greater loss of capital than more diversified portfolios. The Fund may also expose to RMB currency and conversion risk.

• Small/ mid-capitalisation securities may have lower liquidity and their prices are more volatile to adverse economic developments.

• The Fund may use FDIs for hedging and efficient portfolio management purposes, which may subject the Fund to additional liquidity, valuation, counterparty and over the counter transaction risks.

• For certain share classes, the Fund may at its discretion pay dividend out of capital or pay fees and expenses out of capital to increase distributable income and effectively a distribution out of capital. This amounts to a return or withdrawal of your original investment or from any capital gains attributable to that, and may result in an immediate decrease of NAV per share.

• It is possible that a part or entire value of your investment could be lost. You should not base your investment decision solely on this document. Please read the offering document including risk factors for details.

Global Listed Infrastructure

Global Listed Infrastructure

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Strategy Overview

Key Facts

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Source: Lipper, Nav-Nav (with dividend reinvested where applicable)
Acc represents share class with dividends accumulated. M Dist represents share class with monthly distribution of dividends.  H Dist represents share class with half-yearly distribution of dividends.  Q Dist represents share class with quarterly distribution of dividends.  Dividends are not guaranteed and may be paid out of capital. All prices are for indication only. For detail, please refer to the Fund’s factsheet for further details including investment objective & strategy, asset allocation, top 10 holdings, comparison with benchmark (if any) and disclosure.

With effect from 22 September 2020, First State Investments was rebranded to First Sentier Investors. The names of the funds were also rebranded, please view the full list of the fund name changes: Hong Kong Unit Trust (HKUT) / First Sentier Investors Global Umbrella Fund (VCC).

Infrastructure to shape our future

We invest in the companies our societies are built on. These are companies solving for the world’s long-term challenges such as urban congestion, digital mobility, and the energy transition. We are unapologetically active investors. We invest for future generations in mind, because a more sustainable world means better outcomes for our investors.

Why invest in the First Sentier Global Listed Infrastructure strategy?

  • Listed infrastructure provides essential services to society, making it less sensitive to the economic cycle. 

  • Growth is being driven by long-term structural themes such as the build-out of renewable energy, the need to ease urban congestion, and increasing reliance on mobile data. 

  • Focus on environmental stewardship and social license to operate supports long-term, sustainable returns to shareholders.

  • Effecting change through ongoing engagement and dialogue with companies. 

How we invest in global listed infrastructure

Addressing net zero and the energy transition

Whilst longer term targets such as net zero 2050 are important, our immediate priority is to set medium-term expectations and assess company performance against those measures.

We challenge management on where they expect to get to by 2025 and 2030. We need to be forward looking and also identify the laggards who could be the leaders.

Disclaimer: Reference to specific securities (if any) is included for the purpose of illustration only and should not be construed as a recommendation to buy or sell the same. All securities mentioned herein may or may not form part of the holdings of First Sentier Investors’ portfolios at a certain point in time, and the holdings may change over time.

Questions about investing in listed infrastructure

What is an infrastructure investment?

The main infrastructure asset types include transportation systems like rail, airports and toll roads; communication systems like mobile/cellphone towers; and water, gas and electricity utilities. These assets are essential to the day-to-day functioning of our society. They typically offer more stable returns than many other investment options. 

What are the risks of investing in infrastructure?

The key risks for infrastructure investors are political and regulatory intervention. These risks can be mitigated by diversification across countries, sectors and regulators, and by using an active manager who is able to understand and navigate those risks. Infrastructure investment funds may also be vulnerable to factors that particularly affect the infrastructure sector, for example natural disasters or operational disruption.

Is listed infrastructure an asset class?

In short, yes. While investors have embraced infrastructure as an asset class since the 1990s, the idea of investing in infrastructure via listed securities was developed by a few Australian asset managers between 2005 and 2007. Global listed infrastructure is now widely acknowledged as a standalone asset class by asset consultants, investors and the funds management industry. Today we estimate funds under management in global listed infrastructure to stand at around US$100 billion. It’s also worth remembering that infrastructure assets also have their own risk and return profile; and benefit from structural drivers that can be quite distinct from those of global equities. 

How should I be using infrastructure in my portfolio?

Use of listed infrastructure within investor portfolios has varied over time. Initially we saw it used as a defensive, low volatility equity. This expanded to see it used as a source of income, as declining bond yields increased the relative appeal of its growing divided streams. More recently, we have seen listed infrastructure form part of the real assets segment of investors’ portfolios, due to the nature of its long-life, hard assets and ability to offer insulation from the effects of inflation as well as offer structural earnings growth. We have also seen investors utilise global listed infrastructure as a diversified, liquid and lower fee alternative to unlisted infrastructure allocations.

When should I invest in infrastructure?

You should always seek professional advice if you are unsure about your investment options. Historically, infrastructure investments have generated stable, predictable cash flows and delivered long-term growth. As part of a balanced portfolio these types of investments have tended to be less volatile than other equity classes. Due to these factors, infrastructure can be used through the economic cycle at all times as a lower volatility complement to global equities.

I already get exposure to infrastructure through my global equity fund, why would I need to invest in an infrastructure fund?

You probably get a little bit of exposure - but not very much. We estimate that most global equity managers may invest between 2% and 4% (or less) of their portfolio in infrastructure assets. This exposure could be concentrated amongst a small number of large, well-known utility names. However, much of the alpha generated in our diversified portfolio has come from mid-cap stocks, which are under-researched by global equity managers, such as toll roads, energy storage and mobile towers. If you decide global listed infrastructure suits your investment needs, then an explicit allocation in your investment portfolio would be needed to gain a meaningful exposure to the asset class.

Isn’t infrastructure just a low growth, bond proxy investment?

No. Infrastructure assets offer defensive, non-cyclical growth opportunities from a variety of areas.   

These include: 

  • investment-driven earnings from the build-out of new transmission and distribution assets by electric, gas and water utilities 
  • clean renewable energy replacing carbon emitting, coal-fired electricity generation 
  • increasing equipment on mobile phone towers, to cope with growing data usage on smartphones 
  • rising traffic volumes on toll roads, as a result of urban congestion.

While global listed infrastructure is a relatively interest rate sensitive asset class, it also has long term structural growth attributes.

Responsible investment

Our corporate responsible investment strategy is based upon three strategic pillars of quality, stewardship and engagement.

ESG issues are fundamental to infrastructure companies, given they have significant service obligations and moral accountability to the communities in which they operate.

ESG analysis is integrated into our investment process through our quality assessment and ranking model. This model consists of 25 criteria that influence stock returns in general and infrastructure securities in particular. A score is assigned to each criterion; a lower quality score makes it harder for a stock to be included within the overall portfolio. ESG factors are captured both explicitly, through scores for Environmental, Social and Governance quality criteria, and implicitly, where ESG factors are relevant to the other quality criteria we consider.

Learn more about the Global Listed Infrastructure team's approach to responsible investment

Sustainability Report 2022

Our Sustainability Report 2022 provides transparency on how we assessed the environmental, social and governance performance of the companies we invest in, how we engaged with leadership, and insights from our research throughout the year.

Meet the investment team

Peter Meany

Head of Global Listed Infrastructure

Andrew Greenup

Deputy Head of Global Listed Infrastructure

Edmund Leung

Senior Portfolio Manager

Rebecca Sherlock

Portfolio Manager