Insights

Building portfolio resilience with infrastructure

October 27, 2025

~ 7 min read

In uncertain times, investors are seeking stability. Infrastructure stands out as an asset class that has the potential to deliver income, inflation protection and long-term capital resilience.

To explore the role infrastructure can play in resilient portfolios, we sat down with Chris Leslie, Senior Managing Director, Green Investments and Ani Satchcroft, Co-Head of Infrastructure for Asia-Pacific. They shared their perspectives on how different types of infrastructure can perform across cycles, why careful asset selection matters and how Macquarie Asset Management is actively managing opportunities across digital connectivity and renewable energy.

Periods of market volatility, inflationary pressures, and questions about global growth have prompted many investors to review the durability of their portfolios. Diversification remains a cornerstone of portfolio construction, but the characteristics of the assets included can be equally important.

Infrastructure has increasingly attracted attention because of its links to the provision of essential services on which economies depend – from energy to transportation to digital connectivity. These are areas where demand tends to persist through cycles, creating the potential for consistent, long-term cashflows.

“If you invest in infrastructure, you can improve the resilience of your portfolio without giving away the upside,” explains Chris Leslie.

Holding steady: the role of infrastructure

Infrastructure plays a unique role in portfolios, distinct from fixed income, private equity and real estate investments. As Leslie noted, its value lies in its potential to deliver resilience, with potential characteristics being, consistent demand, predictable cashflows, and the ability to weather cycles without sacrificing the upside. Over time, this has been borne out in performance: Private infrastructure has outperformed global listed equities – with less volatility. According to recent analysis over a 20-year horizon by Cambridge Associates, private infrastructure assets have delivered consistently strong risk-adjusted returns relative to both traditional equities and fixed income.¹

The potential resilience of the asset class also highlights the importance of a disciplined approach to asset selection. Not every opportunity that looks like infrastructure on the surface delivers the defensive, stable characteristics investors are seeking. Some strategies may behave more like private equity, with higher risk and return expectations.

In Leslie’s view, “if a manager is suggesting infrastructure returns of around 20 per cent, that should prompt investors to carefully assess whether the opportunity truly aligns with infrastructure fundamentals”.

Unlocking value through active management

The role of infrastructure managers is not limited to acquisition. While infrastructure is often viewed as a stable, long-term asset, the performance of these assets is shaped by active, hands-on management. Ensuring that assets remain reliable, efficient, and relevant to community needs requires ongoing investment and operational improvement.

Ani Satchcroft explained, “We match private capital to unmet community needs, and in doing so we provide the facilities and infrastructure people rely on every day.”

This approach is visible across several Macquarie Asset Management-backed examples:

1. Digital infrastructure: We recognised early the shift in data centres from peripheral backup storage to critical digital infrastructure. In April 2020, a consortium led by Macquarie Asset Management (on behalf of its managed fund and clients) and including PSP Investments acquired an 88 per cent interest in AirTrunk, valuing the company at $A3 billion.² In September 2024, Macquarie Asset Management via its managed fund and PSP Investments agreed to sell their interests in AirTrunk to Blackstone in a deal that implied an enterprise value of over $A24 billion.³ The outcome reflects our ability to identify, invest in, and nurture digital infrastructure assets that are resilient, scalable and pivotal in meeting the burgeoning demand for data, cloud services and the adoption of AI. It also highlights our expertise in finding attractive investments by looking to where communities are heading and executing successful divestment strategies.

2. Connectivity: In 2021, Macquarie Asset Management acquired Vocus, a fibre and network solutions provider in Australia and New Zealand. Shortly after, Vocus was planning to IPO its New Zealand subsidiary, but we instead pursued a merger with 2Degrees, a full-service telco. The decision created a vertically integrated provider in New Zealand, improving competition and services for consumers. In Australia, we made the strategic decision to acquire TPG’s enterprise, government, and wholesale network assets, effectively doubling Vocus’ footprint. This enabled Vocus to expand its reach and strengthen connectivity infrastructure across the country.

“This was an investment where we believed we could add real value, and we successfully created an end-to-end full-service provider in the New Zealand market,” explained Satchcroft. “Vocus has grown under our ownership, not just with capital but also with operational improvement.”

Renewables with staying power

The rapid digitalisation of economies is driving unprecedented demand for power, as more industries, services and households rely on data, connectivity and electrification. At the same time, the transition to low-carbon energy is accelerating, with hyperscalers such as Google and Amazon requiring not only more power, but specifically more green power to meet sustainability targets.

Solar and wind projects, which can be deployed quickly and cost-effectively compared to traditional generation, are central to meeting this increasing demand. The growth pipeline for renewables remains robust, and infrastructure investors are playing a critical role in bringing forward new capacity.

DESRI is one of the largest renewable power producers in the United States. DESRI develops, owns, and operates utility-scale solar, wind, and battery storage projects across the country, supplying clean electricity to around two million homes. Many of these projects operate under long-term power purchase agreements, providing predictable revenue streams.

As Leslie observed; “DESRI is a high growth platform benefiting from this excess electricity demand in the US. But their real expertise – and where we can see additional value – is in bringing new projects through development,” said Leslie.

These characteristics make DESRI a good example of an infrastructure investment with the potential to demonstrate resilience across different market conditions.

Portfolios built for resilience

Macquarie Asset Management is the world’s largest infrastructure manager⁴, with over 300 million people depending on its essential services every single day⁵. Our teams manage assets across transportation, utilities, digital infrastructure, contracted and social assets and renewable energy – all with the aim of supporting the systems that underpin economic activity.

Resilient portfolios are built on the reliability and durability of underlying assets. Infrastructure’s ability to deliver essential services positions it as an asset class that can help investors navigate uncertain conditions while contributing to the growth and development of the communities it serves.

About Macquarie Asset Management

For over 30 years, we have been a recognised industry leader with a long-standing history in infrastructure investing. Relentlessly focused on investing to deliver superior results and positive impact for our clients, portfolio companies, communities and those whose savings we’re trusted to manage.

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Cambridge Associates, Bloomberg. Private Infrastructure: Cambridge Associates Infrastructure Index; Global Equities; MSCI World Index for global equities; Global bonds: Bloomberg Global Aggregate Index. Analysis conducted from 1 January 2004 to 31 March 2025.
‘Macquarie-managed infrastructure fund-led consortium reaches financial close on leading hyperscale data centre platform, AirTrunk’, AirTrunk, 8 April 2020, https://airtrunk.com/.
'AirTrunk announces first data centre Sustainability Linked Loan in Asia-Pacific region', AirTrunk, 13 September 2021, https://airtrunk.com/.
The ranking presented herein is awarded in July 2025 and is the opinion of IPE Real Assets and not of Macquarie. No such person creating the ranking is affiliated with Macquarie or is an investor in Macquarie-sponsored vehicles. IPE Real Assets surveyed and ranked global infrastructure investment managers. The ranking is based on infrastructure AUM as of 31 March 2025. AUM is defined by IPE Real Assets as the total gross asset value of all assets managed and committed capital (including uncalled). There can be no assurance that other providers or surveys would reach the same conclusions as the foregoing.
As at 30 September 2024. Number of people reached is calculated by taking an estimate of the number of users for all MAM Real Assets portfolio companies. Examples include a specific toll road where the number of vehicles per day has been multiplied by the average number of passengers in a vehicle (average passengers in a vehicle is ~2, not dependent on country); a particular power generation asset where the amount of GWh it generates per year is divided by the average power consumption in the country where the asset is located. Portfolio company data is collected from MAM’s asset management teams on a bi-annual basis.

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