164: Infrastructure: From Niche to Mainstream Asset Class - With Luba Nikulina, CSO of IFM Investors

Money Maze Podcast

Today is the first time we welcome back a guest who has changed firms between interviews. We recorded Luba Nikulina, on Thanksgiving day, 2022, and our guest was then Head Global of Research at WTW, an organisation advising on over $3 trillion of assets.
Today Luba is the Chief Strategy Officer at IFM Investors, a leading asset manager in infrastructure with a significant presence in other asset management capabilities.
Luba explains the switch, and unpacks the investment thesis behind the increasing inclusion of infrastructure in institutional portfolios.
She reflects on its position within the growing private assets sleeve of allocators, and why Australia and Canada have adopted significantly larger allocations of 10-20%, but why many other major countries are now building theirs.
She assesses infrastructure’s risks, rewards and liquidity characteristics. She explains the barriers to competition, the projects involved, including bridges, toll roads, data centres and new energy assets. In short she would say it’s the “buoyant, brilliant ballast in the investment boat”.
​​The Money Maze Podcast is kindly sponsored by Schroders, World Gold Council and LSEG.
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