Diversifying for growth: Investing in unlisted assets

Did you know that the money invested by Australian super funds on behalf of their members is more than the value of all the shares on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX)? According to the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA), around $4.1 trillion is invested in super assets¹ – higher than the ~$3.1 trillion total market capitalisation of all companies listed on the ASX².

At Australian Retirement Trust (ART), our team of investment experts are always looking to diversify beyond traditional shares to uncover assets with unique characteristics that can deliver both consistent, reliable income and stable long-term returns for our members. In fact, for members under 50 years of age invested in our MySuper approved Lifecycle Investment option, a little over 30% is invested in unlisted assets and alternatives. 

The following graph shows how we invest in unlisted assets and alternatives around the globe, compared to other asset classes.

Note: This chart excludes FX positions (Spot, Forwards), as well as Futures contracts and their associated Notional Cash offsets. The latter are excluded to remove a skewing effect on the overall Cash figure.

As one of Australia’s largest super funds, we use our size and scale to find a broad range of local, national and global investment opportunities. 

We invest across a range unlisted asset types – private equity, infrastructure, property, private credit and private fixed income. Our ability to partner with businesses in economies and industries with solid growth prospects allows us to continue investing capital as we grow.

While unlisted assets are not immune to fluctuations or crises, they can demonstrate significant defensive characteristics and help reduce our exposure to share market volatility.  

Here are just some of the assets we’ve invested in for the benefit of our members:

London Heathrow airport

In May 2011, ART acquired an interest in London’s Heathrow Airport and made an additional investment in June 2017. Today, we own ~11% of Heathrow Airport, investing alongside sovereign wealth funds and pension funds from around the globe.

We also have significant investments in both Sydney and Brisbane Airports.

Puget Energy

In February 2022, ART, as part of a Macquarie-led consortium and the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, acquired an interest in Puget Energy (Puget). ART currently has a ~6% equity interest in Puget. 

Puget is the largest integrated electric and natural gas utility in the Pacific Northwest of the United States, servicing over 1 million customers in a ~15,000 square km area which includes the Seattle metropolitan area.

Vena Energy

Headquartered in Singapore, Vena Energy (Vena) is a leading renewable energy company in the Asia Pacific region. Vena owns, develops, constructs, and operates renewable energy projects across the region with a local presence including an office in Brisbane. 

Between 2018 and 2021, we made several investments in Vena Energy alongside a fund operated by Global Infrastructure Partners, one of ART’s major infrastructure managers. ART’s investment now exceeds $500 million.

G’day Group

We acquired a majority stake in G’day Group (originally Discovery Parks) in 2014 and have since helped to grow the portfolio into a holidays parks business valued at over $1 billion, with parks located in every Australian state and in the Northern Territory.

G’day Group has generated strong returns for ART since 2014 and continues to provide compelling risk-adjusted returns and diversification benefits to the real estate portfolio. 

Discovery Parks - Barossa Valley

AirTrunk

AirTrunk is a data centre operator founded in 2015. Anticipating the growth of cloud computing, AirTrunk signed their first major cloud customers in 2016 and built data centres in Sydney and Melbourne shortly after, before expanding into Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan and Malaysia.

Long-term contracts with global cloud computing and consumer internet companies across Australia and Asia saw contracted capacity at AirTrunk’s data centres jump fourfold in just the last four years alone. In late 2020, ART initially invested around $300 million for a minority stake in AirTrunk to support its continued growth plans.

In September 2024, AirTrunk announced it was being bought by a consortium led by US-based alternative asset manager Blackstone in a $24 billion mega-deal – the 5th largest corporate acquisition in Australian history. As part of that agreement, ART also sold our stake in AirTrunk to Blackstone which resulted in substantial profits for ART members. 

Find out more

ART’s unlisted investments have delivered solid net returns, while acting as an important diversifier during difficult share market conditions. To find out more about how we invest our members’ money at ART, visit www.art.com.au/investments.