The Property & Infrastructure Fund was up +1.0% in January, compared with our global benchmark which was up +2.3%.

The biggest contributor to portfolio performance in January was our holdings in US rail stocks Canadian Pacific (+10.0%) and Union Pacific (+7.7%) which both benefited from solid earnings reports during January and optimism about the US economy (which benefited a range of cyclical stocks in the month). Despite the looming threat of tariffs from the Trump administration, both rail operators gave positive outlook statements for volume and profit growth in 2025. Union Pacific reiterated that it is on track to hit the growth goals outlined at its investor day last year, while Canadian Pacific is benefiting from synergies related to its merger with Kansas City Southern.

Infratil (-11%) was the biggest detractor from performance and provided an update in relation to the value of its stake in CDC Data Centres at the end of December. The value of its stake effectively fell A$320m (around 7%) in the fourth quarter of 2024, which it attributed to a lift in global interest rates over the period. CDC also announced it has completed contracting for 230MW of capacity by year end versus expectations earlier in 2024 that this would reach 400MW. Looking at the big picture, this rate of contracting is still much higher than was anticipated a year ago, however it was disappointing to see expectations for a higher level of contracting not met.