Infrastructure a winner with retail investors

Bruce Murphy

Retail investors have shown their increasing appetite for placing capital in infrastructure investments, providing $123 million worth of fund flows for the Macquarie International Infrastructure Securities fund in its first year of operation.

“Infrastructure was considered an alternative investment for the past 10 years, but it is now mainstream, more understood, and more accessible for retail investors,” head of Macquarie Funds Management International Infrastructure Securities team Jon Fitch said.

In total, the fund received $223 million of fund inflows over the past 12 months, with the additional $100 million coming from institutional investors.

According to Fitch, infrastructure is no longer being viewed as the domain of institutional investors, a fact illustrated by the proportional contributions to the fund from the two investor groups.

In line with the evolution of this asset class, Macquarie is encouraging investors to include infrastructure as a standard part of their portfolio.

“We believe investors should consider exposure of up to 10 per cent as part of a balanced portfolio, depending on their investment profile and individual needs. We recommend investors discuss the merits of including exposure to a managed infrastructure fund with a financial adviser,” Fitch said.

The head of distribution at Macquarie Funds Management, Bruce Murphy, believes the popularity of the fund over the past 12 months has been largely due to its unique structure.

“The Macquarie International Infrastructure Securities Fund was one of the first specialist funds to provide an open-ended managed fund that retail investors and their advisers can access 12 months of the year,” he said.

“It is still one of the few managed infrastructure funds that is available to advisers and investors on the major Australian platforms,” Murphy added.