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Infrastructure Summit

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Australia won’t be able to get wind turbines to renewable energy zones quickly unless it builds more roads and bridges.

‘Maybe we can use Zeppelins’: Australia’s missing infrastructure links

Solar panels and wind turbines crucial to Australia’s energy transition are piling up at a key port because the nation does not have the infrastructure to move them.

  • Jenny Wiggins
NextDC CEO Craig Scroggie (r) talks to AFR technology editor Paul Smith in Sydney.

Nuclear ban holds Australia back from data centre opportunity

Craig Scroggie says without a ‘logical conversation’ on nuclear, Australia may miss an opportunity to grab an outsized chunk of the booming data centre industry.

  • Angela Macdonald-Smith
Transurban boss Michelle Jablko

‘We didn’t set the tolls’: Transurban pitches new pricing plan

Company boss Michelle Jablko says NSW can’t afford to build roads without private money and is looking at charging corridors according to congestion levels.

  • Jenny Wiggins

Trump win could be good news for Australian energy transition

Investment bankers hope an expected pullback in Inflation Reduction Act support for green investments under the new Trump administration could help Australia.

  • Angela Macdonald-Smith

Di Pilla’s bolt from the blue snatches biggest IPO of the year

Six months ago, no one saw this float coming. But at $1.65 billion, it is the largest raising for a new Australian company since 2018.

  • Anthony Macdonald
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November

Transurban CEO Michelle Jablko says that assest privatisations reflect governemnt priorities at the time.

Inflation shadow falls over privatised infrastructure model

The political fallout from privatisation colliding with a temporary cost of living crisis could end up gumming up the pipeline of public works in the longer run.

  • The AFR View
Vesna Poljak AFR companies editor with Sydney Airport boss Scott Charlton and Qantas head of international and freight Cam Wallace on Monday.

Qantas claims network advantage will outgun bulked up Qatar

Qantas international boss Cam Wallace says the wet leasing arrangement that facilitates the partnership between Virgin and Qatar cannot be indefinite.

  • Ayesha de Kretser and Jenny Wiggins
CDC boss Greg Boorer in 2017 with Steven Worrall of Microsoft.

Australian Retirement Trust eyes stake in $16b CDC Data Centres

It comes two months after ART sold its 7 per cent stake in AirTrunk into the Blackstone bid, booking a $1 billion exit off a $300 million investment.

  • Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport
Bridget McKenzie,

Public support for migration has ‘snapped’: Coalition

The cost-of-living crisis and the post-pandemic surge in arrivals has broken the social compact on migration, says Coalition frontbencher Bridget McKenzie.

  • Phillip Coorey and Rohan Sullivan
Western Harbour Tunnel is under construction and won’t be privatised

Transurban tolls hit NSW roadblock

Transurban and the NSW government are at loggerheads over how to reduce the long-term costs to taxpayers and motorists from Sydney’s sprawling toll road network.

  • Jennifer Hewett
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Transurban boss Michelle Jablko

How toll road ‘beeps’ became Australian infrastructure’s hottest issue

Politics and business are colliding in Australian infrastructure. Do we really believe in miracle “win-win” scenarios?

  • Anthony Macdonald
Andrew Jennings, Managing Director - APAC Infrastructure, KKR, speaks on the Panel Infrastructure Investment - how to build returns amid global uncertainty at the Sydney Infrastructure Summit on November 11, 202

Road toll fight shows risk of contract changes a reality for investors

The threat of changes by the NSW government to toll-road concessions is a “reality” for asset owners, but it may erode confidence in Australian assets.

  • Jonathan Shapiro
Businesses can rack up millions of dollars in tolls annually moving goods around Sydney

One business is paying $7.4m in Sydney road tolls

Data compiled by the NSW government shows the high cost of tolls for companies as the state pushes ahead with new laws to monitor the prices motorists are being charged.

  • Jenny Wiggins
The Port of Newcastle wants to diversify away from coal exports and build a container terminal.

Port of Newcastle’s container terminal pitch tempts foreign investors

The world’s biggest coal export hub has been approached by big investors who want to help fund an expansion that is expected to cost well above $2.5 billion.

  • Jenny Wiggins
Sydney Metro boss Peter Regan was more into finance than trains as a child.

Sydney Metro’s boss learnt from London’s ‘failed experiment’

Peter Regan found out the hard way how to strike a good public-private partnership for transport.

  • Jenny Wiggins
Artist impression of a data centre in Artarmon, Sydney that Goodman will start building next year.

The property giant that will soon build more data centres than sheds

The launch of a number big turnkey data centre projects next year – including in Sydney and Paris – will ramp up the value of Goodman’s global workbook.

  • Larry Schlesinger
Mineral Resources founder Chris Ellison.

Future Fund questions MinRes’ handling of Ellison claims

The comments from the sovereign wealth fund came after influential proxy advisers said directors needed to be more accountable for the governance failure.

  • Updated
  • Peter Ker
Anglo American CEO Duncan Wanblad.

Eyes on Anglo American’s Moranbah mine after $1.6b Jellinbah sale

Should Nippon Steel try to pry Moranbah North from Anglo American – and it’s a big if at this stage – it would be another blow to the bidders who vying for what started as a $US5 billion portfolio.

  • Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport

October

IFM Investors’ profits fell slightly last financial year but pay went up under chairwoman Cath Bowtell.

Exec pay at IFM Investors jumps 48pc despite profit fall

The infrastructure powerhouse also recorded broadly flat revenue last financial year, but its key management personnel salary bill still soared.

  • Hannah Wootton
The state opposition has blasted the Suburban Rail Loop as being a ‘gravy train’ for senior public servants.

Suburban Rail Loop’s 100 executives paid an average $332,000 a year

Victorian Opposition Leader John Pesutto has described the Surburban Rail Loop as a “gravy train” after its annual report revealed the salaries bill.

  • Gus McCubbing
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Irish giant CRH has been a major player in the wave of consolidation sweeping Australian construction and building groups.

Irish giant CRH to buy CPE Capital-backed concrete infrastructure biz

Civilmart is the country’s No.2 manufacturer of concrete pipes and precast products, backed by John Haddock’s buyout firm CPE Capital. 

  • Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport
Neara’s co-founders Daniel Danilatos, Karamvir Singh and Jack Curtis are seeing international expansion opportunities.

PE giant buys in as Aussie AI infrastructure start-up raises $45m

Swedish private equity giant EQT is one of the lead investors in a $45 million funding round at Australian AI infrastructure start-up Neara.

  • Paul Smith
Not here, but where? And how much? Premier David Crisafulli has rejected an upgrade for QE2 in Nathan, but hasn’t yet said where Brisbane’s Olympic Stadium for 2032 will be.

Brisbane’s nation-leading construction inflation an Olympic hurdle

Cost escalation has come off its extreme highs of two years ago. But Queensland leads the national league table and that’s a problem for the new government.

  • Michael Bleby
Premier-elect David Crisafulli addressing the media on Sunday morning, alongside his deputy Jarrod Bleijie.

Crisafulli presses Albanese on funding share, Olympics

Incoming Queensland premier David Crisafulli will be officially sworn in on Monday, triggering a shift in policies and a new wave of cabinet ministers.

  • James Hall
Global Switch Australia is a 26MW data centre campus located on the fringe of the Sydney CBD

David Di Pilla plots AirTrunk-sized data centre play

The dealmaking king has already lined up $4b of data centre assets, but has much bigger plans for alternative asset manager HMC Capital’s new investment push.

  • Larry Schlesinger

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/afrlive/infrastructure-summit