What we invest in
Your super isn’t built for one future — it’s built for many.
The approach behind your portfolio
1 Issued by SuperRatings Pty Ltd (SuperRatings) ABN: 95 100 192 283 a Corporate Authorised Representative (CAR No.1309956) of Lonsec Research Pty Ltd ABN 11 151 658 561, AFSL No. 421445 (Lonsec Research). Ratings are general advice only and have been prepared without taking account of your objectives, financial situation or needs. Consider your personal circumstances, read the product disclosure statement and seek independent financial advice before investing. The rating is not a recommendation to purchase, sell or hold any product. Past performance information is not indicative of future performance. Ratings are subject to change without notice and SuperRatings assumes no obligation to update. SuperRatings use proprietary criteria to determine awards and ratings and may receive a fee for the use of its ratings and awards. Visit superratings.com.au for ratings information. © 2024 SuperRatings. All rights reserved.
“We cannot predict the future, but your portfolios do need to be prepared for it. Portfolios structured with balance and diversification in their sources of growth can limit the impact from unexpected triggers of
capital impairment.”
Alison Tarditi, Chief Investment Officer
Where your money is invested
Fit for the future
CSC continuously seeks high quality assets positioned for long term structural change, including:
- digital infrastructure
- energy transition
- medical innovation—where demand is high due to growing and ageing populations.
These are areas where demand is durable and less dependent on short term economic cycles.
Portfolios may benefit when assets are purchased before others recognise their value and bid their prices up.
However, being an early mover can also bring investment risks, including unproven business models, inexperienced management teams, slower than expected adoption rates (e.g. due to high costs or complex implementation), or the potential for technologies to be superseded.
These risks are managed through a disciplined investment approach, including partnering with experienced specialist investment managers.
These future-fit assets can help your portfolio remain resilient across a wide range of economic, policy, political and market environments over the decades that matter for retirement.
Real examples from your portfolio
Here are some early, targeted investments supporting your super (FY2024–25) that contributed to CSC’s performance.
Examples of profitable early private equity investments
Developing new drugs to address unmet needs
- 2019: invested in a company developing a novel anti coagulant to prevent blood clots.
- Funding supported development and clinical trials, which delivered promising results.
- Addresses a major unmet need: Atrial fibrillation (AF) affects an estimated 60 million people worldwide, yet around half of patients do not receive appropriate treatment due to concerns about bleeding risk.
- The new drug aims to reduce bleeding risk, enabling safer dosing.
- Attracted strong interest from major pharmaceutical firms.
- Sold profitably to a global pharmaceutical company in Feb 2025 (subject to regulatory approval).
Financing innovative medical devices
- 2021: invested to support development of a less invasive defibrillator for patients at risk of cardiac arrest.
- The device reduces infection and complication risks compared to traditional models.
- Received EU and US approvals in 2023, triggering annual fixed payments.
- Claim sold in Q4 2024, delivering strong early returns.
Examples of selective investment in building new future-fit infrastructure assets
Canberra Data Centres (CDC)
- Early conviction in data centres nearly a decade ago.
- Invested in CDC in 2016 after deep due diligence.
- February 2025: A partial sale (50%) delivered approximately 43% per annum returns since inception2.
- Members benefited from early exposure to strategic AI infrastructure.
2 Prior to investment management fees.
High speed home internet infrastructure
- Broadband is a modern essential.
- CSC invests in fibre infrastructure for resilient cashflows and structural demand.
- Portfolios now hold digital infrastructure across Australia, the US and Europe.
Renewable energy developers
- Focused on developing new renewable and storage capacity, not just buying existing assets.
- Prefer developers with strong in-house teams across grid, planning and supply chain.
- Diversified pipeline across solar, wind and batteries in Europe, the Americas, Asia and Australia.
Electric vehicle (EV) charging
- Transport electrification is a growing infrastructure theme.
- Backed a European first mover in home EV charging, where demand is steadier.
- Supported by strong regional policy for EV adoption.
What your portfolio is built from
The building blocks
Each pre-mixed investment option is built from a blend of key asset classes. Every asset class plays a different role—some focus on growth, others on income or stability. Combined, they aim to strike the right balance between risk and return and help smooth your long term super journey.
Equities
Public market equities (shares)
CSC invests in high quality listed companies in Australia and globally. Exposure is maintained when fundamentals are supportive, with derivatives and other hedging strategies used at times to help protect your savings when markets are volatile.
- How they support your super: long term growth and dividends.
- How risk is managed: dynamic asset allocation, stress testing and selective hedging.
Private equity (unlisted businesses)
Unlisted businesses are companies that are not traded on a public stock exchange. They are typically earlier stage or privately owned businesses that investors can’t buy or sell through public markets.
These companies may be in Australia or overseas, and this investment gives CSC access to sectors or segments of economic growth that may not be accessed as efficiently through listed markets. Private companies are generally managed by teams that have operational experience in their specialist industry.
- How they support your super: potential for long term returns that are less closely tied to public market cycles, with opportunities to create value through active ownership and business growth.
- How risk is managed: through careful manager and investment selection, aligned incentives, and a staged approach to investing as businesses develop.
“… Within your private equity allocation, we select private businesses that are creating economic value by solving real scientific and corporate problems.”
Alison Tarditi, Chief Investment Officer
Innovation in practice
AI driven therapeutic discovery
One of your portfolio companies is using artificial intelligence to help speed up drug discovery by analysing one of the world’s largest biodiversity databases.
The database contains 9.8 billion genes across 400 terabases of genetic data (1 terrabase is equivalent to 1 trillion pairs of DNA). By combining this scale of biological data with AI, researchers can identify promising compounds more quickly and efficiently, helping accelerate the development of new medicines.
Cash
Cash investments focus on short term money market assets, such as bank deposits and highly rated short term securities. These investments are designed to preserve capital and provide liquidity and are typically less volatile than other asset classes.
- How they support your super: liquidity and capital stability, helping meet short term needs and smooth returns during market stress.
- How risk is managed: investment in short dated, highly rated securities and diversification across issuers, with ongoing monitoring of interest rate conditions.
What is liquidity?
Liquidity describes how quickly and easily an investment can be turned into cash. Highly liquid assets can help to provide flexibility and stability, particularly during changing market conditions.
Fixed interest
Fixed interest investments involve lending money to governments and large organisations in return for regular interest payments and the repayment of capital at maturity. These include Australian and international government bonds, as well as corporate bonds issued by major organisations.
- How they support your super: regular income and diversification, helping balance more growth focused assets such as shares.
- How risk is managed: diversification across issuers, regions and maturities, and scenario analysis across interest rate and credit cycles.
Property
Property investments involve investing in real estate like shopping centres, office space, factories, hotels, residential developments (either completed or in-progress developments).
Investing in property includes buying into established and in-development-buildings and properties.
CSC also invest in property trusts and property companies, which means your money is pooled with other investors to achieve the scale required to buy a share of very large properties.
- How they support your super: income, potential for value add and diversification.
- How risk is managed: active asset management, tenant and lease diversification.
Property highlight
Grosvenor Place (Sydney CBD)
CSC doubles investment in a premium asset to support reliable retirement incomes. Read more
Infrastructure
Infrastructure investments focus on essential public works and services that communities and businesses rely on every day. These include assets such as energy networks, transport, digital connectivity, utilities and data centres, many of which are scarce, hard to replace and supported by long term demand.
- How they support your super: dependable cashflows, inflation linkage in parts of the portfolio, and exposure to long term demand (digital, energy, health).
- How risk is managed: diversified counterparties, long term/fixed price service contracts, and shareholder agreements that allow partial or full sell downs as themes mature.
Infrastructure in action
Your infrastructure assets are selected because they are scarce, hard to replace, and hard to disrupt.
Alternatives
These are investments that don’t fit neatly into traditional asset classes like shares or bonds. They can include strategies based on listed securities, such as shares, bonds and derivatives, as well as investments such as hedge funds and absolute return strategies, which aim to perform differently to share and bond markets.
- How they support your super: diversification and the potential to reduce reliance on share and bond market movements.
- How risk is managed: careful selection of strategies and managers, clear risk objectives, and ongoing monitoring to ensure they continue to perform their intended role within the portfolio.
CSC’s ESG approach
Learn more about how environmental, social and governance considerations are incorporated into CSC’s investments.
Investment disclosures
Groups of similar assets are referred to as ‘asset classes’.
Your investment options are made up of a mix of these asset classes:
- Cash
- Fixed interest
- Equities
- Property
- Infrastructure
- Alternatives
‘Asset allocation’ represents the relative proportion, or percentage, of the portfolio that a particular asset class invests in.