Better than index funds: the risk-adjusted bet | Mark Jones, Resolution Capital

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
This episode is brought to you by Accenture. When you're advertising operations fall out of sync, everything else follows. Spotify and Accenture are working together to reinvent the rhythm of ad sales. Using automation, analytics, and smarter workflows to simplify campaign delivery and access better data across the business. The result? Less time spent on operations, more time connecting brands with the moments and fandoms that matter most. Learn more at accenture.com/spotify.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:31)
When you need to build up your team to handle the growing chaos at work, use Indeed Sponsored Jobs. It gives your job post the boost it needs to be seen and helps reach people with the right skills, certifications, and more. Spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all your boxes. Listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit at indeed.com/podcast. That's indeed.com/podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Need a hiring hero? This is a job for Indeed Sponsored Jobs.

**SPEAKER_3** (1:00)
You know those tiny back to school emergencies that somehow become your problem? That's why I love Uber Eats. You can order school supplies, snacks, and lunchbox essentials for $5 or less.
So when your kid casually drops, I don't like peanut butter anymore or I need five green highlighters for a project due tomorrow. Uber Eats has you covered. Get everything you need for back to school today from your favorite brands like Albion Staples on Uber Eats. Order now.
Ends 9-7, $5 or less before taxes and fees. Select items only. Availability varies. See app for details.

**Mark Jones** (1:30)
There are around 300 or so global listed infrastructure companies with which you can invest. Infrastructure faces minimal creative destruction, has a finite universe and the earnings predictability is very high. Companies that I was looking at and analyzing 20 years ago are still there today.

**Owen Raszkiewicz** (1:53)
We're about to have a conversation with Mark Jones of Resolution Capital, a portfolio manager who has years of experience in infrastructure. We'll talk about toll roads, energy utilities, ports, so much more. We're going to go into AI and what that means, the data centers. Are they investible? Is it a risk? We're going to talk about how does infrastructure make money? What are we looking at? What should we be paying attention to when it comes to allocating money? Importantly, should we just use an index ETF for infrastructure, or should we go active? We're going to debunk some myths in this conversation with Mark Jones. I think you'll really enjoy it. Hey there, here's a quick note. This podcast contains general financial advice only. That means it's not specific to you, your needs, goals or objectives. So don't act on the information until you've spoken with your financial advisor. You'll find our full disclosure, disclaimer and link to our financial services guide in the show notes.
Mark, welcome back.

**Mark Jones** (2:47)
Thanks, Owen. Great to be here.

**Owen Raszkiewicz** (2:49)
It's always great to chat and today we're talking about something that's, I think, so important to people's understanding of how financial markets work, how the economy works as we'll figure out in this episode, and how people that are interested in passive income, stable capital growth or a bit more, I think they're all going to find out that this is actually a really interesting part of the financial marketplace. My first question to you is quite a simple one, bit of fun.
What's the best risk-adjusted investment opportunity right now anywhere in the world?

**Mark Jones** (3:23)
Right. So, starting with the easy questions. Look, I think, Owen, in that question, the most important part of it are two words, which is risk-adjusted. And if you think about the range of outcomes potentially to occur in markets over the next 12, 18, 24 months, there is a lot of uncertainty.
And so, with that as a backdrop, I think infrastructure and more particularly listed infrastructure is actually exceptionally well placed from a risk-adjusted point of view.

**Owen Raszkiewicz** (4:10)
And if I dig a little bit deeper, why would you say risk-adjusted, like emphasize that in infrastructure right now?

**Mark Jones** (4:19)
Yeah, so with infrastructure, what you get is typically investing in physical assets, which are long-lived, capital-intensive, quasi-monopolies with pricing power.
And the last piece of this is that they are relatively immune to creative destruction. We haven't yet invented a substitute for electricity or water. So, with infrastructure, you get a lot of permanence, a lot of earnings visibility. And where you have earnings visibility, you have a high confidence interval in terms of what investor returns. It can actually produce.

**Owen Raszkiewicz** (5:18)
That's so well said. Now, we're going to talk a lot about infrastructure. We're going to talk about vehicles. We're going to talk about passive and active in this space as we go on.