A Sydney-based team of listed global infrastructure investors has become the first funds management foray of the giant private wealth pool, Susquehanna International Group.

Nucleus Global Investors will be 40 per cent-owned by Susquehanna, which manages the private wealth of eight poker-loving Pennsylvanians who made their fortunes trading options since 1987. The rest will be owned by senior staff, including founder and chief executive Stefano Solferini, a veteran of infrastructure deals from the buy-side of UBS, who has more recently held a strategy role at Mariner Financial. Another of Nucleus’ nine investment staff will be Brian Ingham, a former head of equities at BNP Paribas when it retained an Australian manufacturing business, who more recently headed investments for Calliva Wealth prior to its purchase by Mark Bouris’ Yellow Brick Road. Solferini said Nucleus had been seeded by Susquehanna with an amount that dwarfed that received by most boutiques – “;it’s more than what Colonial seeds its new funds with,”; he said. Susquehanna’s backing has also made it possible for Nucleus to second three offshore-based analysts, Solferini said, with two based in New York and one in Dublin. Nucleus’ paper portfolio of 40-50 listed infrastructure companies will go live on July 1. Only OECD countries will be invested into, with Solferini favouring monopolistic assets enjoying price inelasticity, which are “;run by the operators”; as opposed to the Australian model where investment bankers are often in charge and leverage to inappropriate levels. Solferini described Nucleus’ approach as style-neutral, with “;deep value”; analysis balanced by an awareness of market-timing.