What is Lendlease? On paper, it is a property developer that has had an outsize influence on Australian corporate life since it was founded almost seven decades ago. For its chief executive, Tony Lombardo, it’s an “investment-led business”, as he told investors this week, focused on a strategy to “re-rate from development to investment”.

Andrew Parsons, who ran Lendlease’s real estate securities business until a management buyout 20 years ago, says it’s easier to say what the company isn’t – rather than what it is.