The following research paper was selected for presentation in the Due Diligence Forum program at PortfolioConstruction Conference 2008.

Category
Subcategory

Taking Stock (International Equities)
Specialty

Due Diligence Forum speaker

Denis Eagar
Portfolio Manager
Magellan Asset Management

Due Diligence Forum summary

After more than a decade of benign conditions, there is a real prospect that the world will experience a resurgence of inflation driven by record high oil and food prices.

This presentation and underlying research paper illustrate that the infrastructure asset class provides a safe haven in inflationary periods. They seek to show that: many infrastructure assets have natural inflation hedges through direct contractual linkages of their pricing to inflation; price elasticity of demand for infrastructure is very low; globally, most infrastructure assets have high levels of interest rate hedging; and, inflationary impacts on operating costs are muted relative to most other industries.