Passenger Rail

AustralianSuper wants in on PPP market

Tram stopped at Southport South on the Gold Coast Light Rail. Photo: Creative Commons / David Ansen

AusRAIL: The head of infrastructure for $92 billion fund AustralianSuper says he wants to get involved in the public private partnerships (PPP) market.

Jason Peasley spoke at AusRAIL on Tuesday, November 24, as part of a forum on establishing and growing an infrastructure projet pipeline in Australian rail.

“AustralianSuper has recently approved its annual infrastructure portfolio strategy,” Peasley explained.

“As part of that strategy, we have developed an initiative whereby we will be entering the public private partnership market as both a debt and equity partner, effectively as a lead sponsor.

“This isn’t something that institutional investors have done previously.

“It takes a lot of people, it takes a lot of resources , and capital to take those projects to market, and the [Australian] superannuation system is only now getting to a level of maturity where [it can] engage directly in the development of infrastructure.”

Peasley said the decision was influenced by the growing size of AustralianSuper, and increased confidence in the long-term stability of the infrastructure project landscape.

“Within AustralianSuper, we’ve got to a size now where we can … develop a platform that will allow us to participate in that market,” he said.

“A second important reason is what we’ve heard today around the development of agencies, the advocacy for pipelines, the advocacy for transparent cost-benefit analysis.

“It’s momentum that we believe is starting to overcome the short-term political cycles, and allowing the long-term planning and delivery of infrastructure to endure.

“That’s giving us the confidence … to become a sponsor in this marketplace, to bring our balance sheet, and to play our part in delivering infrastructure.”