A rating of Very Strong is the second highest rating on the investment rating scale used by Australia Rating. A Very Strong investment rating indicates a very strong conviction that the Fund can deliver a risk-adjusted return in line with the Fund’s investment objective.

The Infrastructure Partners Investment Fund – Core is managed by IPIF Management Pty Limited, founded by Nicole Connolly in 2014. The Fund is a unique offering providing investors exposure – through a Fund of Fund (FoF) structure – to a well-diversified portfolio of unlisted infrastructure assets featuring Australia’s major airports (including Perth, Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane, etc.), TransGrid, South East Water and the Sydney Desalination Plant among other investments. Due to their size, such assets are typically only accessible to large institutional investors such as pooled superannuation funds.

Since its inception, the Fund has focused on investing in well-established unlisted infrastructure funds and building an exposure to mature, cash-generating assets with a balanced mix of regulated and inflation linked investments. Australia Ratings’ analyst, Dragana Timotijevic, said “The rating reflects the quality of the underlying assets and IPIF Management Limited’s expertise in managing unlisted infrastructure investments.”

She added “the rating also indicates the high level of confidence Australia Ratings has that the Fund will continue to deliver a stable and uncorrelated return relative to equity markets”.

The Fund makes semi-annual distributions, targeting net of fees returns of 3.5% over the 10 Year Government Bond Rate. As at August 31 2019, the Fund had around $133mn funds under management.

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Nicole Connolly

Specialist unlisted infrastructure fund manager, Infrastructure Partners Investment Fund (IPIF) has announced a $100 million capital raising that will enable smaller investors to access an asset class that is increasingly successful with institutional investors and industry funds.

IPIF will use the proceeds from the raising to fund immediate opportunities in two existing investments and expand the range of unlisted infrastructure assets in its flagship fund, IPIF Core. It has also just added a fourth unlisted infrastructure fund to its investment portfolio.

The fund already invests in assets including Adelaide, Brisbane, Cairns, Melbourne and Perth airports; Interlink Roads and a number of energy and utilities assets including ElectraNet, First Gas (NZ), Phoenix Natural Gas (UK), PowerCo (NZ), Sydney Desalination Plant and TransGrid.

IPIF Core was designed specifically to bring institutional-grade assets to private investors, high net worth individuals (HNWIs), self-manager super funds (SMSF) and other smaller sophisticated investors. It is the only multi-manager platform that provides individual investors with access to the unlisted infrastructure asset class.

Existing investors are prioritised to participate in the capital raise, as well as allowing for potential new investors in the fund. It is expected to close by mid-September.

IPIF Founder and CEO, Nicole Connolly, said demand for the fund and its reliable and consistent income yield had been strong, given the critical nature of infrastructure assets to the economy, “Infrastructure in a portfolio sits between government bonds and equities in terms of risk and return, making it an excellent portfolio diversifier and source of consistent income.”

“This capital raising gives us the opportunity to respond to recent high levels of investor demand for access to this attractive asset class,” Ms Connolly said. Interest had been particularly strong from HNWIs and SMSF trustees, financial planners and wealth managers.

IPIF Core has delivered performance of 7.9% a year since inception in January 2016.

IPIF also recently announced two new appointments, including Jonathan van Rooyen as Chief Investment Officer, and Sean Kim as Senior Investment Analyst.

The capital raising and new appointments caps of what is already a big year for the Manager, andcomes on the back of Ms Connolly being named as a Finalist in the Women in Finance Awards for Entrepreneur of the Year.

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