Commonwealth Superannuation Corporation has sold 50 per cent of its investment in CDC Data Centres (CDC) to CDC’s existing co-shareholders, Future Fund and Infratil, achieving a return of almost 43 per cent a year since inception.
CSC said in a statement that it retains a 12.04 per cent stake in CDC, with governance rights.
In a separate statement Future Fund said it will hold a 34.55 per cent stake in CDC, with Infratil holding 49.75 per cent. It said that in December 2024, CDC shareholders provided CDC with additional equity funding to support its multi-year development pipeline and meet growing customer demand for high quality, secure data centre campuses that meet the highest technology requirements.
Future Fund chief investment officer Ben Samild said infrastructure assets such as CDC provide attractive risk-adjusted returns and local currency exposure that protect the portfolio from volatile international conditions.
“Technological advancement is one of the significant themes we see shaping the investment outlook and we expect data centres to play an important and long-term role in the economy of the future,” he said.
CSC Chief Investment Officer Alison Tarditi said the result on the sale “demonstrates our ‘investment DNA’ as an early mover into future-fit assets”.
“We have developed this capability by recognising governance as an enabler of innovation and commercial reaction speeds,” Tarditi said.
“This feature of my team enables us to invest early and selectively, generate super normal returns without bearing super normal risks, and recycle capital opportunistically into emerging opportunities with competitive risk-adjusted returns. We have actively chosen to retain exposure to CDC, to support the business and its outstanding management team to execute on its growth prospects. Prospects that remain underpinned by the twin themes of digitisation and the paramount need for critical infrastructure to be secured.”