Maple-Brown Abbott | 2026 mid-year investment outlook: Global infrastructure equity

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[2026 mid-year investment outlook: Global infrastructure equity Renaissance Global Infrastructure Fund]

[Featuring Andrew Maple-Brown, Portfolio Manager & Co-Founder, Maple-Brown Abbott Global Listed Infrastructure]

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My name is Andrew Maple Brown, and I'm one of the co-founders and portfolio managers of Maple-Brown Abbott's global listed infrastructure strategy.

The first half of 2026 has really been a period of two quarters for the infrastructure sector. The sector started very strongly in the first quarter, well outperforming global equities during January and February markets were concerned around the impact of AI on broader companies, and a new acronym was coined: HALO—heavy assets, low obsolescence—describing the types of companies viewed as positive in this environment. Halo summarizes the type of companies that the infrastructure sector offers: essential services, long dated assets, and which we believe will have very little impact from disruption from AI.

In March, the Iran war broke out. There's virtually immaterial direct impact on our portfolio of companies. From the macroeconomic implications, we think they're quite supportive for the infrastructure sector. So, for these reasons, the sector strongly outperformed global equities during the first quarter.

During the second quarter, though, markets have become more complacent about these concerns. And so, the broader market has bounced back whilst listed infrastructure has underperformed. Turning to the outlook, we’re positive for the listed infrastructure sector considering several factors. Firstly, growth continues to be very strong, driven by massive investment needs across multiple infrastructure sectors.

In particular, this has been driven by digitalization and decarbonization, as well as the ongoing need for investment in water and transportation infrastructure. From a macroeconomic perspective, infrastructure assets perform well when inflation is stronger and also have a lesser sensitivity to economic growth. Then finally, from a valuation perspective, the valuations of the companies in our sector are trading pretty much in line with their long-term averages. But relative to the broader equity markets, we believe are looking cheap and also trading particularly cheap relative to where comparable assets trade in the private markets.

So, the portfolio is currently weighted about 50% to regulated utilities. The largest portion of these regulated utilities within our portfolio are electric utilities, which are seeing a major step up in their growth rates, as a result of the increased investment opportunity, firstly from decarbonization investments and more recently from the increased electric load coming from data centres.

Over the last 12 months, though, we've also been increasing our exposure to water utilities. We see water utilities as being low risk utility companies, which are also high growth. The growth is a result of most of the assets for water utilities sitting underground, and as it's so expensive to replace old pipes in urban environments – typically these pipes should be being replaced on a 100-year cycle – but very often the companies are not able to achieve this pace and yet are still seeing growth in their asset base in the high single digits at least, which we believe will be very enduring.

About a quarter of our portfolio are then invest in transportation infrastructure assets, with our largest position being in toll roads. And the remainder of the portfolio is in assets that are subject to long-term contracts. So, these include pipelines, renewable assets and telecommunication towers. We especially like the tower assets at this time, which we see as benefiting from increased digitalization, and yet which we view as trading at historically cheap multiples.

[The information contained in this material are the views of Maple-Brown Abbott and compiled by CIBC Global Asset Management, as of July 14, 2026 and are subject to change at any time. CIBC Global Asset Management does not undertake any obligation or responsibility to update such opinions. This material is provided for general informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment, tax, legal or accounting advice, it should not be relied upon in that regard or be considered predictive of any future market performance, nor does it constitute an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any securities referred to. Individual circumstances and current events are critical to sound investment planning; anyone wishing to act on this material should consult with their advisor. Commissions, trailing commissions, management fees and expenses all may be associated with mutual fund investments. Please read the simplified prospectus before investing. To obtain a copy of the simplified prospectus, call 1-888-888-FUND (3863). Alternatively, you may obtain a copy from your advisor.

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