Matt Bushby
ClearBridge Investments Limited, a Franklin Templeton company, has been been selected to sub-advise a listed infrastructure mandate available on the Colonial First State FirstChoice platform.
“We are pleased to be awarded this mandate and recognised for our expertise and long-history in managing global listed infrastructure funds ” ClearBridge Head of APAC Business Development, Matt Bushby, said.
“Representation on the CFS FirstChoice platform will provide additional flexibility for advisers and consultants looking to allocate to ClearBridge’s award winning listed infrastructure funds”, Bushby said.
The CFS fund mirrors the ClearBridge RARE Infrastructure Value Fund – Hedged, which has a ‘Highly Recommended’ rating for 2024 from both Lonsec and Zenith Investment Partners. It invests in a range of listed infrastructure securities spread across various subsectors such as gas, electricity and water utilities, renewables, toll-roads, airports, rail and communication infrastructure in both the developed and emerging markets.
“Investors worldwide are recognising that investing in listed infrastructure companies can provide inflation-linked returns, stable income, and diversification benefits from other asset classes. The ClearBridge Infrastructure team’s collaborative and benchmark unaware investment approach has delivered strong risk adjusted returns to Australian clients over a number of investment cycles since 2006” Shane Hurst, Portfolio Manager said.
Furthermore, infrastructure is at the forefront of some of the world’s most powerful mega-trends such as the green transition to a lower-carbon world, climate adaption, energy security, the shortening of supply chains and the digitalisation transformation that now includes the AI revolution.”
This asset class has the potential for multi-decades of future growth, offering Australian investors attractive risk-adjusted qualities” Hurst said.
The ClearBridge strategy will join five other Franklin Templeton owned strategies on the CFS FirstChoice platform.
