What is global listed infrastructure

What is global listed infrastructure

What is global listed infrastructure

11 minute read

November 2025

Share

Sign up to get our insights
Subscribe

Global listed infrastructure offers a compelling investment opportunity through essential, long-lived assets that deliver stable, inflation-linked cash flows and portfolio diversification—especially in today’s uncertain market environment.

Infrastructure assets form the backbone systems that support essential services, enabling communities to function and economies to grow.

The $6.2 trillion global listed universe consists primarily of companies that own and operate these assets, grouped into four main categories.

These businesses have common characteristics that unite them as an asset class and make for attractive investments.

Infrastructure powers the global economy

Long-lived assets: Infrastructure assets typically have useful lives of several decades, providing a long-term source of income.

High barriers to entry: Strict zoning restrictions, large capital requirements and, in some cases, exclusivity agreements make it difficult or prohibitive for competitors to enter the market.

Inelastic demand: Infrastructure provides essential services that often remain in demand even in periods of economic downturns.

Predictable, inflation-linked cash flows: Infrastructure assets are often regulated or operate under long-term contracts or concession agreements, typically resulting in greater cash flow stability relative to many other businesses.

Secular themes driving opportunities

The infrastructure landscape is experiencing a transformation unlike anything seen in decades. Three powerful trends are reshaping how we power our world, connect our data, and move our goods.

These trends are interconnected and reinforcing, creating unprecedented investment opportunities in a wide range of global listed infrastructure subsectors.

Infrastructure: a unique access point into the data and AI revolution

Sign up to get our insights delivered to your inbox

Why invest in listed infrastructure?

Infrastructure has generated consistent, competitive performance relative to global equities over full market cycles, while providing diversifying access to subsectors and investment themes that are typically under-represented in broad equity market allocations.

Notably, infrastructure historically has been a defensive asset class due to the relative cash flow stability of the underlying assets, thereby generally outperforming the broader equity market during business cycle and equity market downturns.

Competitive returns with lower volatility
Competitive returns with lower volatility

Attractive entry point for investors

Global listed infrastructure historically has traded at about a 9% cash flow multiple premium to broad stocks, due to the relative stability of its cash flows. However, infrastructure is currently priced at an 18% cash flow discount, following several years of underperformance relative to global equities.

Infrastructure typically outperforms global equities during times of heightened market uncertainty. And it tends to respond positively to unexpected inflation, potentially helping to mitigate the damaging effects of unexpected inflation on stocks and bonds.

Infrastructure is currently trading at a steep discount to global equities

December 2010 – September 2025

Infrastructure is currently trading at a steep discount to global equities
Infrastructure is currently trading at a steep discount to global equities

Active management: A tactical advantage

Certain sectors historically exhibit clear defensive properties across the business cycle, while others tend to be more economically sensitive. The variety of sectors also provides flexibility in most interest rate environments.

The dispersion of sector returns from year to year and across varying economic and interest rate environments are opportunities for active managers to enhance returns unavailable to passive investment strategies.

Subsectors offer diverse macroeconomic sensitivities
Subsectors offer diverse macroeconomic sensitivities
Wide performance dispersion favors active management

Calendar year returns (%)

Wide performance dispersion favors active management
4904661