Cbus Super Deepens Co-Investment Strategy in Infrastructure

Cbus Super’s infrastructure strategy considers scale and long-term planning. By combining co-investments, direct asset ownership and selective exits, the fund looks to balance growth, risk management, and portfolio diversification, Florence Chong writes

When infrastructure manager Igneo recently sought co-investment for its Australian renewables platform Atmos Renewables to expand its portfolio, Cbus Super jumped at the opportunity to consider being involved.

Together with MLC and AMP Super, the three funds committed around $400 million in August. The capital is being deployed to acquire the remaining stake in a South Australian wind farm — currently partly owned by Neoen Australia — as well as to support a greenfield battery project, the 100MW/400MWh Merredin Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) in Western Australia.

This investment strengthens Cbus Super’s exposure to Australia’s energy transition, adding to its growing portfolio of renewable energy assets. Overall, the fund has more than $2.1 billion invested in renewables and enabling infrastructure, underscoring its long-term commitment to supporting the country’s decarbonisation agenda.

Cbus Super manages an infrastructure portfolio valued at approximately $13.2 billion. Over the past five years, Cbus has doubled its total assets under management (AUM) from $53 billion to $106 billion. With robust member contributions and long-term annualised returns of 8.91 per cent since inception, the fund is on track to reach its next AUM milestone of $150 billion.

Cbus Super has already reached a point where scale matters when it forms its investment decisions. Increasingly, it seeks investments that offer both growth potential and strategic alignment with broader objectives.

“Some of our large co-investments are one-off cheques and we don’t get the opportunity to deploy more capital. Then when we exit there is a significant gap in the portfolio that we need to fill. That is fine, but we like to balance those sorts of co-investments with platforms that we can continue to deploy to as the platform and we grow,” Jordan Kraiten, Head of Private Markets and Infrastructure at Cbus Super, says in an interview with [i3] Insights.

Cbus Aims to Complete Two to Three Deals a Year

Cbus initially entered the infrastructure market through blind-pool funds, where capital is committed without knowledge of the specific assets to be acquired. While these vehicles provided strong returns, the fund’s experience and growing sophistication have shifted its preference toward co-investments with managers.

The rationale is clear: co-investments can offer greater control, closer alignment of interests, and flexibility in negotiating fees. They also allow Cbus to pick and choose high-quality assets rather than being tied to a pre-determined fund structure.

Today, roughly $3 billion of Cbus’s infrastructure portfolio is in co-investments. “We like to think we’re completing at least two to three deals a year,” Kraiten says. “We’ve become a partner of choice – entering into deals that produce the best outcomes for members, while also supporting managers who need capital.”

Atmos Renewables’ Granville Harbour Wind Farm

One of Cbus Super’s most successful co-investments is CyrusOne, a Dallas-based data centre operator. The fund invested alongside KKR in a US$15 billion take-private transaction in 2021 – the largest of its kind that year. In addition to investing through KKR’s Global Infrastructure Investors fund, Cbus committed an additional amount directly to CyrusOne, securing significant ownership in the company.

“We also have several other co-investments alongside KKR, who have been among our most active partners over the last three to four years,” Kraiten notes. Careful partner selection is key: Cbus aims for complementary exposure, ensuring that portfolio managers “aren’t swimming in the same water.”

Beyond CyrusOne, Cbus has also invested directly into the sixth largest US broadband business, Astound. The fund supported the US infrastructure investor, Stonepeak in its 2020 takeover of the cable operator in a US$8.1 billion deal. Astound has since continued to acquire other business to expand its platform.  The US company represents one of Cbus Super’s single largest infrastructure exposures.

Additionally, Cbus has also co-invested alongside partner Antin Infrastructure Partners, in a range of opportunities ranging from renewable platforms with operating assets in North America and Europe and outdoor media assets in the UK.

Kraiten says one of the fund’s largest individual exposures is in the Indiana Toll Road alongside IFM Investors. “In some ways, the US toll road was a pioneering investment for us and IFM. Because of the success of the asset and what it has been able to do, Indiana Toll Road has become something of poster child for IFM in its discussions with other governments and state entities about the benefit of having private capital in public projects.”

Other direct investments or single-asset infrastructure investments include Forth Ports in the UK and NSW Ports.

Drawbacks of Co-investment Deals

If there is a drawback in this type of co-investment, however, it is that some of these assets are held in close-ended funds with a finite time span, albeit for 10 or 15 years, at the end of which the fund is then wound back and capital returned to the investors.

For a long-term investor like Cbus, redeploying large sums of capital in a highly competitive market can be challenging.

This dynamic has fueled the rise of continuation funds, where managers seek to retain their best assets by inviting existing investors to recommit. According to Preqin, in the first half of 2025, 54 continuation funds launched globally, raising around US$25 billion.

Kraiten observes: “We’re seeing continuation fund pitches regularly. Managers establish these vehicles to hold onto high-quality assets, and we have to weigh whether to stay invested. For instance, hypothetically CyrusOne could become a continuation fund asset, and given its performance, we might hold it longer than initially planned.”

While Cbus is open to long-term holdings, it will sell assets when it aligns with strategic goals. In March 2025, it sold its stake in Bright Energy Investments, one of its earliest renewable ventures, in a joint partnership with the Dutch institution, DIF Capital Partners.

The partners sold their 80.1 per cent combined stake — including the Warradarge Wind Farm (180MW), Greenough River Solar Farm, and Albany Grasmere Wind Farm (35.4MW) — to Potentia Energy, backed by Italy’s Enel and Japan’s JERA. The deal was valued at approximately $1 billion.

Kraiten reflects: “We had to decide whether to stay invested with a new partner or sell. Selling ultimately created the best outcome for our members.”

As it happened, the exit from Bright Energy freed capital for new opportunities, such as the co-investment with Igneo in Atmos Renewables.

“Cbus Super’s focus is on deploying capital in a manner that will maximise member outcomes. In the case of Atmos, a strong risk return profile also helps support Australia’s energy transition”

“Our ongoing relationships with a handful of trusted managers allow us to access high-quality opportunities,” Kraiten adds.

__________

[i3] Insights is the official educational bulletin of the Investment Innovation Institute [i3]. It covers major trends and innovations in institutional investing, providing independent and thought-provoking content about pension funds, insurance companies and sovereign wealth funds across the globe.