Invest
Where the investor opportunities are in One Belt, One Road
The ambitious project designed to tie together the two ends of Eurasia, Oceania and Africa could be a boon for long-term investment, an investment manager has said.
Where the investor opportunities are in One Belt, One Road
The ambitious project designed to tie together the two ends of Eurasia, Oceania and Africa could be a boon for long-term investment, an investment manager has said.
According to global listed infrastructure investment manager RARE Infrastructure, an investment bank-led uptick in the Chinese government’s One Belt, One Road (OBOR) infrastructure policy could be good news for investors.
Noting that development in the initiative was soft in 2015-16, thanks to Chinese currency and capital control returns, portfolio manager Charles Hamieh said financial support from the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) contributed to the pick-up in development.
With this in mind, he said the size of OBOR, which includes railways, ports, roads and energy infrastructure, will see the economic benefit of related investments more significant for developing countries than China.
“Outside China, and in the near term, major beneficiaries of OBOR may be seaports along the Maritime Silk Road, such as in south-east Asia (such as Myanmar), south Asia and east Africa,” he said
“While OBOR has a limited impact on global listed infrastructure in the medium term, we believe that there are several long-term investment opportunities within the broader emerging market space.”
Mr Hamieh said the key goal of OBOR is to diversify China’s current export markets, and a significant near-term benefit is boosted awareness to absorb overcapacity in the commodity sector.
“In addition, the engineering and construction sector, such as producers of rail equipment and machinery, could also gain meaningfully with new overseas orders,” said Mr Hamieh.
“Listed infrastructure company China Merchants Port Holdings (CMP), a current holding in all three of RARE’s actively managed strategies, is strategically positioned to benefit from China’s push for the OBOR initiative and Free Trade Zones (FTZ) policy.
“CMP is China’s largest port operator across China’s five major port regions and has exposure to eight of China’s 10 largest ports including Shanghai and Shenzhen, which are amongst the global top three.”
He said infrastructure assets will be “one of the greatest beneficiaries of all the long-term driving markets”, as they provide direct access to domestic demand in these emerging markets.
Concluding, Mr Hamieh argued that these assets also create more defensive underlying revenues as a result of their contracted nature with explicit inflation linkage.
RELATED ARTICLES
Property
Twice the demand: the case study behind Melbourne’s first‑home buyer surge
Melbourne has quietly engineered one of Australia’s most consequential housing turnarounds, with first‑home buyer demand running at roughly double the national pace and four of the top five buyer ...Read more
Property
First‑home buyers now anchor Australia’s mortgage growth — but the risk maths is changing
Great Southern Bank’s revelation that nearly one in three of its new mortgages went to first‑home buyers is not an outlier. It is the leading edge of a broader market realignment powered by government ...Read more
Property
Home guarantee scheme shake-up challenges Australia’s housing market players
From 1 October 2025, the expanded Home Guarantee Scheme (HGS) materially widens what first-home buyers can purchase and where. By sharply lifting price caps and relaxing eligibility settings, the ...Read more
Property
GSB’s first‑home buyer play: turning policy tailwinds into market share
Great Southern Bank’s latest results show that nearly one in three of its new mortgages now go to first‑home buyers—evidence of a fast‑moving market reshaped by government guarantees, easing rates and ...Read more
Property
Why investors are fleeing and renters are scrambling in Australia's housing maze
Australia’s rental market is tightening even as individual landlords sell down. New data points to a multi‑year investor retreat tied to higher holding costs and regulatory uncertainty, while prices ...Read more
Property
Australia's 5% deposit guarantee: Unlocking gains while balancing risks in the market share race
Can a bigger government guarantee fix housing access without fuelling prices? Australia is about to find out. The Albanese government’s expanded 5% deposit pathway aims to help 70,000 buyers, remove ...Read more
Property
Australia's bold move the 5% deposit scheme shaking up the housing market
Can a government guarantee replace lenders mortgage insurance without inflating prices or risk? Canberra’s accelerated 5% deposit scheme is a bold demand-side nudge in a supply‑constrained marketRead more
Property
When rates drop but stress sticks: exploring Australia's mortgage arrears dilemma
Headline numbers suggest arrears ease as rates come down. The reality in Australia is messier: broad measures dipped into mid‑2025, yet severe delinquencies and non‑bank portfolios remain under ...Read more
Property
Twice the demand: the case study behind Melbourne’s first‑home buyer surge
Melbourne has quietly engineered one of Australia’s most consequential housing turnarounds, with first‑home buyer demand running at roughly double the national pace and four of the top five buyer ...Read more
Property
First‑home buyers now anchor Australia’s mortgage growth — but the risk maths is changing
Great Southern Bank’s revelation that nearly one in three of its new mortgages went to first‑home buyers is not an outlier. It is the leading edge of a broader market realignment powered by government ...Read more
Property
Home guarantee scheme shake-up challenges Australia’s housing market players
From 1 October 2025, the expanded Home Guarantee Scheme (HGS) materially widens what first-home buyers can purchase and where. By sharply lifting price caps and relaxing eligibility settings, the ...Read more
Property
GSB’s first‑home buyer play: turning policy tailwinds into market share
Great Southern Bank’s latest results show that nearly one in three of its new mortgages now go to first‑home buyers—evidence of a fast‑moving market reshaped by government guarantees, easing rates and ...Read more
Property
Why investors are fleeing and renters are scrambling in Australia's housing maze
Australia’s rental market is tightening even as individual landlords sell down. New data points to a multi‑year investor retreat tied to higher holding costs and regulatory uncertainty, while prices ...Read more
Property
Australia's 5% deposit guarantee: Unlocking gains while balancing risks in the market share race
Can a bigger government guarantee fix housing access without fuelling prices? Australia is about to find out. The Albanese government’s expanded 5% deposit pathway aims to help 70,000 buyers, remove ...Read more
Property
Australia's bold move the 5% deposit scheme shaking up the housing market
Can a government guarantee replace lenders mortgage insurance without inflating prices or risk? Canberra’s accelerated 5% deposit scheme is a bold demand-side nudge in a supply‑constrained marketRead more
Property
When rates drop but stress sticks: exploring Australia's mortgage arrears dilemma
Headline numbers suggest arrears ease as rates come down. The reality in Australia is messier: broad measures dipped into mid‑2025, yet severe delinquencies and non‑bank portfolios remain under ...Read more
