ANZ said the capital recycling from the sale of these assets will play an important role in financing a “new wave of economic infrastructure development”.
The majority of infrastructure assets for sale will be from the electricity sector, with assets from the ports, water and toll road sectors also being sold.
According to the report the political cycle will heavily influence the timing of when these assets are released onto the market with the second half of 2015 and the first half 2016 shaping up to a period of significant sales.
ANZ global head of utilities and infrastructure David Byrne said it is the right time for a “wave of infrastructure privatisations” with market demand for these assets currently strong.
He said although Australia is approaching the peak of an infrastructure construction cycle mainly fuelled by the resources sector, the potential for further capital expenditure in the medium term remains significant.
He said this demand is being driven by a strong long term outlook for regional economic growth and commodity exports, a core infrastructure deficit and cyclical pressures to boost economic growth.
“As the global and especially Asian economies continue to grow, the longer-term requirement for ongoing investment in resource-related infrastructure will remain,” said Mr Byrne.
“This should support further incremental capacity expansions in resource-related infrastructure, as well as ongoing maintenance capex to support existing facilities.”
He said while resource-related investment has boomed in the past decade, “investment in certain infrastructure elements has failed to keep pace driving considerable capacity constraints across urban transport, water and airports”.
InvestorDaily reported in February that investment in transport infrastructure alone has fallen behind by $250 billion since the 1980s, according to the ADC Forum.
Mr Byrne said supply of some social infrastructure, particularly the heath sector, is also falling behind rapidly growing demand.
