QIC this week participated in the annual Infrastructure Investor Global Summit which took place in Berlin from 17-20 March 2025. A large contingent from QIC’s London, New York and Australian offices were in attendance for what is the largest infrastructure investment gathering annually.
Ross Israel, Head of Global Infrastructure, QIC spoke on the keynote panel ‘Geopolitical risk – at the top of investor agendas in 2025?’ which focused on staying ahead of the curve, new government administrations, conflicts, energy security and turning geopolitical risk into investment opportunities.
He said with a changing investment landscape on the horizon, 2025 will undoubtedly be a transformational year for investors to navigate.
“Geopolitical uncertainty, economic turbulence, shifting policy settings, and the search for relative value across geographies and sectors are all top of mind for investors and asset managers,” said Mr Israel.
“Taking into account the fundamentals of economic growth, government debt levels and demographics, Australia represents a safe harbour for investment and a strong diversifier for global portfolios.”
Discussing some of the opportunities ahead, he said: “In a multi-polar world, we see an increasing focus on supply chain resiliency driving a need for further investment in particular across ports, airports and the logistics chain. It’s about a move from a ‘just-in-time’ to a ‘just-in-case’ strategy to provide that increased margin of safety.”
QIC Infrastructure employs a sector-centric and long-term thematic approach to investing while navigating both the opportunities and risks in the current market environment. With a growing A$38bn1 (US$24bn) portfolio, it invests across three core sectors of energy and utilities, transport, and social and healthcare. In Australia and New Zealand alone, QIC’s local team comprises over 70 investment professionals and manages a portfolio of 16 direct assets.
Nicholas Stockdale, Partner and Head of Europe, QIC Private Debt shared insights on the panel ‘Debt and credit strategies – providing the backbone for tomorrow’s infrastructure financing’ which covered maintaining momentum and appeal as interest rates stabilise, debt financing’s role in the key trends of decarbonisation and power generation, and how resilient debt strategies have proven in recent months.
On the panel he highlighted that infrastructure has evolved significantly with more new asset classes being added, including specialised logistics and battery energy storage systems. At the same time, new financing structures and techniques are also being developed to best support the financing needs for these new asset classes.
Mr Stockdale added that with the multitude of debt strategies, he sees increasing stratification of risks to suits all investors’ appetites.
“We all know the beneficial characteristics of the infrastructure asset class: real asset backed, stable and predictable revenues often underpinned by a regulatory regime, high EBITDA margins - it’s because of these characteristics that infrastructure debt has shown remarkable and consistent resilience through the market cycles exemplified by the relative rating stability of infrastructure credit.”
He added that private market strategies, and high yield infrastructure debt strategies in particular, have held up remarkably well from a pricing point versus public markets.
“This is a golden age for credit investing, with rates expected to be higher-for-longer. These high base rates along with the significant premium to be found in the private markets, and the high yield infrastructure private debt market in particular are highlighting the attractive relative value of the asset class.
QIC’s Xi Chen, Principal, QIC Private Debt UK also took part in a debate at the Debt Forum discussing investment grade versus sub-investment grade in 2025 and beyond. They debated which strategy was currently in favour, how managers are tailoring their offerings and the pros and cons of each debt grade including the strong fundraising, reliability and durability of investment grade debt, and managing risk and delivering favourable yields for sub-investment grade debt.
QIC Private Debt offers institutional investors exposure to diversified debt investments across infrastructure (within the OECD) and corporate, asset-backed securities and real estate sectors (in Australia and New Zealand).
QIC is one of the largest institutional investment managers in Australia, with ~A$125bn (~US$78bn) in funds under management. It is a long-term specialist manager in alternatives offering infrastructure, real estate, private capital, private debt, natural capital, liquid strategies and multi-asset investments.
