In this episode of Inside the Rope, hosts David Clark and Tom Oryl set the stage for a deep dive into the highly specialized world of royalties and uncorrelated alternative streams. Following up on our recent discussion regarding water rights, we shift our focus to Partners Group and the pioneering work they are doing to bring institutional-grade, illiquid assets into the wholesale and retail markets.

We sit down with Stephen Otter, Global Head of Private Markets Royalties at Partners Group - one of the world's leading experts in this space, to unpack the mechanics of investment vehicles like PG3. From music catalogs and future drug sales to litigation finance and insurance-linked bonds, we ask the hard questions that sophisticated investors need answered:

• How do you accurately value a portfolio of hit songs or pharmaceutical pipelines?

• What does the recurring revenue stream actually look like?

• Crucially, what are the hidden, binary risks that can lead to permanent capital impairment?

If you're looking to understand how these unusual assets sit within a modern client portfolio—and why their capped upside demands a strict understanding of risk—this conversation is essential.

How do you secure resilient, institutional-grade returns when traditional equity and bond markets are increasingly volatile? The answer might lie in the driest inhabited continent on Earth.

In this episode, we sit down with Kim Morison, Managing Director of Argyle Water, a pioneer in channeling capital into the Australian agricultural sector. After a three-year period of flat performance driven by unprecedented, back-to-back wet seasons, the macroeconomic and climatic levers governing the $600 million water rights market are shifting violently.

For sophisticated investors holding endowment-style portfolios, water rights present a highly uncorrelated asset class. It bypasses traditional operational hazards, like plagues or localized crop failure, and isolates two powerful drivers of alpha: structural capital demand from high-value permanent crops (such as almonds and citrus) and the brutal reality of Australian climate cycles.

We dive deep into the mechanics of the current market, exploring how the impending El Niño pattern is drawing down dams from 100% capacity to 40% in just two years, rapidly escalating spot prices from $100 to nearly $400 per megalitre. We also break down the structural scarcity amplified by the Australian government’s aggressive buyback scheme, which aims to absorb 10% of total market turnover annually for three consecutive years.

Whether you are evaluating private credit, real assets, or looking to insulate your portfolio from global macroeconomic shocks, this conversation provides a masterclass on the ethical, structural, and financial realities of investing in liquid gold.

Key Takeaways

• Global Capital Rotation: While Canadian pension funds have historical dominance in Australian agriculture, a fresh wave of inbound institutional inquiry is emerging from European wealth managers looking for defensive, scale-ready alternatives to commercial real estate.

• The Ultimate Uncorrelated Asset: Water rights insulate investors from traditional agricultural operational risks (disease, pricing, and labor) while capturing pure exposure to structural scarcity and climate cycles.

• The Return of El Niño: After a rare four-to-five-year run of back-to-back rainfall that temporarily depressed fund income, dam levels in the Southern and Northern Murray-Darling Basins have plunged to 40%, signaling a rapid re-pricing of water assets.

• Government-Induced Scarcity: The federal government’s environmental buyback program is aggressively tightening supply, effectively competing for 100% of the annual market turnover to secure a further 5% of total rights by late 2027.

• Structural Agricultural Transition: Capital growth in this asset class is driven by the permanent migration of water from low-yielding, bulk commodities (like rice) to high-margin, export-driven permanent crops (like almonds and olives), which yield up to 10 times more profit per megaliter.

Have you ever stopped to consider the psychology behind the clutter in your garage? Or how that consumer vulnerability has quietly morphed into one of the most resilient, high-yield asset classes of the last three decades?

For many sophisticated investors, alternative real estate feels like a minefield of over-hyped trends and cyclical volatility. When equity markets get choppy, finding a true counter-cyclical haven with reliable cash flow can feel nearly impossible.

In this episode of Inside the Rope, host David Clark sits down with Michael Tate, the co-founder and former joint Managing Director of Storage King. Over a 30-year career, Tate took a highly fragmented, "mum-and-dad" caretaker industry and helped institutionalize it into a multi-billion-dollar asset class that caught the attention of global private equity powerhouses like BlackRock and Brookfield.

Tate shares the fascinating behavioral economics driving the industry - from Richard Thaler’s "endowment effect" to the sheer psychology of loss aversion. He explains how selling "the deferment of loss" creates an incredibly diversified, single-digit risk profile that thrives whether the economy is booming or busting. If you’ve ever written off self-storage as just "sheds on cheap land," this lesson in scale, brand consolidation, and consumer psychology will completely change your perspective.

Eighty percent of everything you consume travels on a ship. Your iron ore, your energy, your Amazon delivery - all of it. So why do so few sophisticated investors have any exposure to the asset class that makes it happen?

This week David sits down with Anurag Agarwal, Head of Portfolio Management at J.P. Morgan Asset Management and co-head of their Global Transportation Group. Anurag spent years on the investment banking side of Wall Street before a decade teaching entrepreneurship and corporate finance at Boston University. A career arc that gives him an unusually rigorous lens on how capital really moves through the physical world.

Transportation as an asset class sits in a compelling middle ground: it carries the contractual dependability of core infrastructure, but its underlying assets move - and that mobility, it turns out, is one of its most powerful risk management features. When Russia was sanctioned, you couldn't do much with an airport in Moscow. But you could fly a plane out, repaint it, and re-lease it to someone else within weeks.

The conversation also challenges a widely held assumption: that geopolitical disruption is bad for these assets. Anurag walks through why every major shock of the last six years - COVID, Russia-Ukraine, the Houthi attacks on the Suez Canal, Liberation Day tariffs - has actually driven lease rates and asset valuations higher, not lower. When supply chains break down, ships become scarcer. When they become scarcer, rates climb. When it takes four years and $200 million to build a new vessel, you can't solve that overnight.

If you hold an infrastructure allocation, or are building one, this episode will sharpen your thinking considerably.

Private markets are more popular than ever, but for many investors, the "exit" sign is becoming harder to find. As public markets remain tight and private equity hold periods stretch from five years to seven or more, a pressing question emerges: How do you actually get your cash back?

In this episode, we sit down with Tim Ivers, Managing Director of Warana Capital, a specialist who has spent fifteen years operating in the complex, often-overlooked "subscale" secondary market. Tim shares his journey from an aspiring surgeon in Toowoomba Australia to a niche investor in Los Angeles, specializing in buying the assets that large institutional funds are too big to bother with.

We dive deep into the mechanics of illiquid secondaries and the rising importance of NAV lending—a strategy providing lifelines to funds that are "asset rich but cash poor." Whether you are an individual investor concerned about capital calls or a professional looking for a different perspective on risk and valuation, Tim’s "buy it at a discount" philosophy offers a grounded alternative to the traditional private equity J-curve.

• The Valuation Gap: Why "100 cents on the dollar" on your statement might not reflect what an asset could actually sell for today.

• The Small-Ticket Advantage: How operating with "small checks" (under $3 million) eliminates competition from the $40 billion mega-funds.

• NAV Lending 101: How lending against a fund's net asset value at low LTVs (20-30%) can generate 15%+ returns with high security.

• Managing the "Liquidity Mismatch": Why investors are getting stuck with capital calls they can't fund, and how to protect your portfolio.

• The AIQ Structure: A look at how listed entities can provide a more efficient, tax-advantaged way to access private market strategies.

Is the current AI-driven market rally a structural revolution or a speculative mirage? David Clark sits down with David Jenkins, Client Portfolio Manager at GQG Partners, to dissect the firm's recent contrarian stance on the technology sector.

Investors are feeling the squeeze of a "growth-at-any-cost" market. Jenkins explains why GQG, a firm managing over $250 billion AUD, is moving toward a defensive, value-oriented posture. We dive deep into their provocative white paper series, "Dot-Com on Steroids," exploring the "circularity" of AI capital expenditure and the looming risks in the private credit and data center boom.

If you’ve been questioning the sustainability of triple-digit multiples and wondering where to find quality when "gravity" eventually returns to earnings, this conversation provides a necessary, fundamental-based reality check.

Key take aways:

• The AI Capex Mirage: Why the massive spending by "hyperscalers" may be creating a circular revenue trap that isn't backed by real-world earnings.

• Quality vs. Hype: Understanding GQG’s "forward-looking quality" philosophy and why they believe traditional tech "quality" is actually deteriorating.

• Hidden Gems in Value: Why sectors like insurance, healthcare, and utilities are becoming the new frontier for compounding capital.

• Infrastructure Red Flags: The risk of securing long-term debt against short-lived assets like GPUs that may burn out in 18 months.

• The "South Beach" Story: A look inside the rapid rise of GQG Partners and how they’ve achieved a 90% alpha strike rate over rolling five-year periods.

With AI reshaping industries at a speed few investors have experienced before, many portfolios are caught between fear of missing out and fear of overpaying. Which businesses will genuinely benefit, and which are simply riding the narrative?

In this episode, David Clark sits down with Qiao Ma, Portfolio Manager at Munro Partners, to unpack how professional investors are navigating one of the most significant structural shifts in decades.

From tearing apart iPhones to identify supply chain winners, to applying the same thinking to Nvidia and the AI ecosystem today, Qiao shares a disciplined framework for cutting through the noise and focusing on what matters: earnings, durability, and valuation.

For investors trying to make sense of AI, software disruption, and shifting market leadership, this conversation offers clarity grounded in real-world portfolio decisions.

Key Takeaways:

• • AI is not optional: Every investor now needs a view. Sitting on the sidelines is no longer viable.

  • Follow the economics, not the hype: Real winners are already generating earnings today, not promises of future growth.

  • Look beyond obvious names: Supply chains and infrastructure often capture more durable value than headline stocks.

  • Software is no longer untouchable: AI is challenging the durability and pricing power of SaaS models.

  • Valuation still matters: In a world of rapid change, price discipline becomes even more important.

  • Process beats prediction: Structured risk management and team-based decision making are critical in volatile markets.

  
  

  DISCLAIMER:

  Performance data mentioned in this podcast is as at 28 February 2026. This podcast is for general information purposes only as it is not investment advice of any nature. The information contained in this podcast reflects, as of the date of publication, the views of Munro Partners and sources believed by Munro Partners to be reliable. There can be no guarantee that any projection, forecast or opinion in these materials will be realised. The views expressed in this podcast may change at any time after the date of issue. This information has been prepared without taking account of the objectives, financial situation or needs of individuals. Before making an investment decision in relation to the Funds, investors should obtain independent advice from a licensed professional adviser. Information about the Munro Funds issued in Australia, including the product disclosure statements (PDS), and target market determination (TMD) for the Munro Funds is available at www.gsfm.com.au, www.munropartners.com or by calling 1300 133 451. Past performance information in this podcast is given for illustrative purposes only and should not be relied upon as an indication of future performance. None of GSFM Responsible Entity Services, Munro Partners, its related bodies or associates nor any other person guarantees the repayment of capital or the performance of the Funds or any particular returns from the Funds. No representation or warranty is made concerning the accuracy of any data contained in this podcast. You should consider the PDS and Additional Information to the PDS in its entirety before making a decision to acquire or continue to hold an interest in the Funds. This video was recorded on 13 March 2026.  

   

In this episode of Inside the Rope, David Clark sits down with Chris Aylward, a veteran of Australian property markets whose career spans more than five decades. From leasing office towers in Melbourne in the 1970s to founding APN Property Group and navigating multiple financial crises, Chris has seen every phase of the real estate cycle.

For investors trying to make sense of today’s market - rising rates, expensive assets, private credit growth and uncertainty around office property, Chris offers a rare long-term perspective.

This conversation explores what today’s market gets right, what it gets dangerously wrong, and why experienced investors are becoming more cautious even while liquidity floods into property and private debt.

Chris also reflects candidly on the biggest mistake of his career - a European property fund that went badly wrong, and the lessons it taught him about partnerships, leverage and risk management.

For listeners managing wealth, allocating capital, or investing in real assets, this episode is a great learning episode in cycle awareness and disciplined investing.

If you’ve recently had a liquidity event, inherited complexity, or are quietly wondering whether your portfolio is truly built for the next 30 years — this episode is essential listening.

In this conversation, Ian Macoun, founder of Pinnacle Investment Management, joins David Clark to unpack what actually drives sustained investment excellence — and what quietly destroys it.

With over $200 billion under management across 19 affiliates, Pinnacle has become one of Australia’s most successful multi-affiliate investment firms. But this episode is not about scale. It’s about structure, incentives, character, and long-term alignment.

For sophisticated investors managing significant capital, this discussion goes directly to the hard questions:

• Why do some fund managers endure for decades while others fade?
  

• How do you distinguish confidence from dangerous ego?
  

• Is private credit a structural allocation, or the next bubble?
  

• How should wealthy operators think differently about portfolio construction?
  

• What does AI mean for growth investing?
  

• Where are private markets heading next?

Ian’s philosophy is simple but demanding: excellence is the only standard.

And that applies to both managers and investors.

Inside The Rope's episode with Ian Macoun will release next Tuesday, the 3rd of March 2026.