Australia-based investment fund UniSuper bought a 5 per cent indirect shareholding in Vodafone infrastructure spin-off Vantage Towers for AUD1 billion ($676.3 million).

The fund’s play for a share of Vantage Towers follows what it described as extensive due diligence. Its other investments include stakes in major airports in Sydney and Adelaide. It also formerly owned equity in Australia tower company Axicom.

In its statement, UniSuper head of private markets Sandra Lee called Vantage Towers a “high-quality defensive infrastructure investment with strong fundamentals and growth prospects,” highlighting the expected “significant growth” in demand for data.

UniSuper acquired its Vantage Towers interest through investment company KKR, which owns a proportion of the business after striking a big money deal with Vodafone in November 2022 together with fellow backer Global Infrastructure Partners.

That agreement led to the formation of a venture to control the tower business jointly owned by the operator and the pair of new business partners.

Vantage Towers was spun-off by Vodafone Group in 2020 and subsequently offered various other infrastructure assets from across its portfolio.

It now has a portfolio of more than 83,000 sites across ten markets, according to UniSuper’s declaration on its deal.