On Monday, UniSuper announced that it has invested $1 billion to acquire a 5 per cent indirect stake in European mobile towers business Vantage Towers.
The $115 billion super fund said that the deal, which was reached following a period of extensive due diligence, marks its first direct unlisted infrastructure investment in Europe.
Sandra Lee, head of private markets at UniSuper, said that the investment would complement the fund’s existing infrastructure portfolio which includes Sydney, Adelaide and Brisbane Airports, Transurban Chesapeake, and a growing allocation to forestry assets.
“This is a high-quality defensive infrastructure investment with strong fundamentals and growth prospects. It adds to UniSuper’s approximately $15 billion private markets portfolio and is positioned to deliver excellent results for our members over the long term,’ she said.
“The expected significant growth in data demand underpins our interest in the digital infrastructure sector. At a time of economic uncertainty, we remain cautiously opportunistic, and this is a great example of that approach.”
Described as being one of the leading mobile towers businesses in Europe, UniSuper said that Vantage Towers currently has a portfolio of more than 83,000 sites across 10 different markets including Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom.
Vodafone is the anchor tenant and major shareholder of Vantage Towers. Late last year, the telco entered into an agreement with a consortium led by Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) and KKR to invest in the mobile towers business.
UniSuper explained that it had acquired its interest in Vantage Towers by joining this consortium through its relationship with KKR.
The super fund indicated that it was excited to support, optimise, and grow the business into the future alongside KKR, the other consortium partners, and Vodafone.
“We look forward to a strong relationship with KKR going forward as well as working alongside the Vantage Towers management team and our co-investors,” said Ms Lee.
“As genuine active long-term investors, we continue to look for sizable opportunities that grow our members’ retirement savings.”
Earlier this year, UniSuper announced that it had acquired an infill redevelopment opportunity close to the Port of Melbourne in a deal worth $105 million.
Jon Bragg
Jon Bragg is a journalist for Momentum Media's Investor Daily, nestegg and ifa. He enjoys writing about a wide variety of financial topics and issues and exploring the many implications they have on all aspects of life.
