Future Fund acquired $1B direct stakes in Melbourne and Perth airports
Raphael Arndt · CIO Greatest Hits: Sovereign Wealth Funds – Raphael Arndt (Australia Future Fund) · Sep 1, 2025 · at 1:19:02
Raphael Arndt explains how Australia's Future Fund executed a direct infrastructure acquisition when third-party manager fees and terms were unattractive.
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“There was an opportunity in Australia to buy some domestic airports from a listed company, and we wanted to use a manager, but when we started talking to the market, we found that they weren't aligned sufficiently... So we actually went out, surprised the market by doing the transaction ourself in house, and then acquiring some assets, which left us with essentially two large airport exposures here in Australia, Melbourne and Perth airport, which were approximately a billion dollars each of value.”
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