As the world rapidly shifts into a new era defined by artificial intelligence, energy transition, and digital interconnectedness, a less visible but absolutely essential movement is reshaping global economies: the infrastructure renaissance. No longer limited to roads, bridges, and ports, the new infrastructure stack includes the physical and digital frameworks required to power modern industry, from water treatment systems and cloud networking to semiconductors and the pipes that feed them.
At Tamim, we believe that investors who understand this transformation and its enablers, especially in the form of listed global companies, stand to benefit greatly. Today, we explore three companies sitting at the heart of this invisible backbone: Ebara (TSE:6361), AECOM (NYSE:ACM), and F5 Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV). These are not household names, but they are quietly shaping the foundation of tomorrow’s economy.
The Macro Case for Infrastructure: Rust Never Sleeps
We’ve written before about the renewed trust in “rust.” Governments around the world are rediscovering the importance of industrial capacity. Years of underinvestment in physical infrastructure, driven by fiscal austerity and hyper-financialisation, are now giving way to bipartisan support for large-scale infrastructure initiatives, especially in the U.S., Japan, and parts of Europe.
In the U.S., this shift is most obvious in legislation such as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the CHIPS and Science Act. In Australia, the energy transition is driving significant new public-private partnerships. And globally, geopolitical tensions, especially between the U.S. and China, are reshaping supply chains and reinforcing the need for resilient physical infrastructure.
This new era is not just about pouring concrete; it’s about rebuilding the foundational systems that support both traditional and emerging industries. Smart logistics, power resiliency, AI data pipelines, water security, and semiconductor manufacturing, all require specialised expertise and industrial muscle.
Ebara Corporation (TSE: 6361); Powering Water, Waste, and Wafers
Ebara might appear on the surface to be a traditional pump manufacturer, but beneath that surface lies a compelling exposure to the most urgent global investment themes: water security, semiconductor manufacturing, and clean energy.
Water & Waste Management
Ebara’s water pumps are critical in infrastructure-heavy use cases: tunnel drainage, sewage systems, irrigation, flood mitigation, and desalination. As extreme weather events become more frequent, municipal governments are investing more heavily in resilient infrastructure, particularly across Asia and the Middle East. Ebara is a direct beneficiary of this trend.
The company also builds municipal and industrial waste incineration plants, areas gaining traction as urban populations rise and landfill space becomes constrained. Ebara’s dual positioning in both water and waste makes it an ideal play on urbanisation and climate adaptation.
Semiconductors & Precision Machinery
The most exciting division, however, is Ebara’s Precision Machinery arm. This division provides plating and cleaning equipment, including CMP (Chemical Mechanical Polishing) tools, for semiconductor wafer production. These tools use water and vacuum systems, areas where Ebara has deep expertise. CMP is critical to flattening the wafer between fabrication steps, a seemingly minor process but essential for chip reliability and performance.
With global chip manufacturing capacity being decentralised (thanks to the CHIPS Act in the U.S. and similar subsidies in Japan and Europe), demand for CMP tools is expected to grow robustly.
Valuation & Market Context
Despite this high-tech exposure, Ebara remains categorised as an “industrial.” It trades at relatively undemanding multiples, especially when compared to pure-play semiconductor peers. For investors seeking exposure to the semiconductor capital equipment cycle without the nosebleed valuations of ASML or Applied Materials, Ebara offers a compelling alternative.
AECOM (NYSE: ACM); Designing the Future of Infrastructure
AECOM is not a construction company in the traditional sense. It is the brains behind the brawn, a professional services powerhouse that helps governments and corporations plan, design, and manage infrastructure projects. With over 50,000 employees across 150 countries, AECOM is an enabler of the global infrastructure transition.
Energy Transition & Grid Modernisation
AECOM plays a critical role in the decarbonisation movement. It works with utilities and governments to design renewable energy facilities, modernise electricity grids, and improve energy transmission across long distances. Their teams handle everything from early-stage environmental assessments to post-construction compliance.
In Australia, AECOM is involved in critical energy transition planning, helping to deliver on-state and federal commitments to net zero. As the electrification of everything accelerates, from transport to industry, companies like AECOM are essential to mapping out the complex systems required.
Transport & Urban Planning
From high-speed rail to airports and bridges, AECOM’s transportation division helps governments plan for the next 30 years. In the U.S., they are a lead consultant on projects funded by the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill. In Asia, they are involved in smart city design and climate adaptation planning.
Urban densification is driving demand for better infrastructure everywhere, and AECOM is increasingly viewed as a trusted partner in making cities more livable and connected.
Why This Matters for Investors
AECOM benefits from a long sales cycle and recurring revenue model. Projects often span several years, ensuring forward revenue visibility. The company has been refocusing its operations away from lower-margin construction management toward higher-margin consulting and planning services.
It trades at reasonable valuations for a high-quality, asset-light business with embedded macro tailwinds. If infrastructure is going to boom, someone has to plan it first, and that someone is AECOM.
F5 Inc. (NASDAQ: FFIV); Securing the Digital Arteries
Sector: Cloud Infrastructure, Secure Networking
F5 Inc. might sound like a forgotten keyboard key, but it’s very much front and center in the modern digital economy. It operates at the intersection of cloud security, communications infrastructure, and network optimisation.
While companies like Amazon, Microsoft, and Google dominate the headlines, F5 quietly powers many of the behind-the-scenes functions that make those cloud services secure, fast, and reliable.
Core Business Model
F5 provides application delivery and network security solutions to enterprises and telecom companies. As data flows increase exponentially, particularly with the rise of AI workloads, the need for secure, optimised networking infrastructure is more critical than ever.
Their products help ensure uptime, security, and performance of web applications and services, everything from streaming video to online banking to cloud-hosted enterprise software.
Public Cloud Partnerships & Upside Leverage
What makes F5 particularly attractive is its partnership model. It works closely with AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud to help manage traffic flows and security at scale. This makes it a leveraged beneficiary of growing cloud infrastructure spend without taking on the capital intensity of the hyperscalers themselves.
Recent results show upward revisions in both revenue and earnings guidance. EBIT margins have expanded to 25%, well above industry averages. With a debt-to-equity ratio under 2%, the company offers a defensive yet growth-oriented investment.
Valuation & Fundamentals
F5 trades at ~20x forward earnings, not cheap, but reasonable for a company with rising margins, sticky enterprise customers, and a clean balance sheet. It’s not a “hype” AI name, but it’s quietly powering the pipes through which AI data flows.
The TAMIM Takeaway
The infrastructure revolution isn’t about digging ditches, it’s about building the visible and invisible networks that power tomorrow’s world. Companies like Ebara, AECOM, and F5 are riding long-term, secular tailwinds across urbanisation, energy transition, semiconductor manufacturing, and cloud computing.
They are essential, scalable, and often overlooked. Most importantly, they offer exposure to high-growth themes without speculative risk, excessive valuations, or balance sheet fragility.
In a world obsessed with front-end technology, remember: it’s the invisible backbone, the pipes, pumps, power systems, and protocols, that keeps it all running.
Disclaimer: Ebara (TSE: 6361), AECOM (NYSE: ACM), and F5 Inc. (NASDAQ: FFIV) are held in TAMIM Portfolios as at date of article publication. Holdings can change substantially at any given time.
Every investor wants to win. But few are willing to win slowly.
In a market addicted to speed, speed of information, speed of execution, speed of returns, the very idea of letting time do the heavy lifting feels quaint, even risky. Yet this is precisely where true outperformance lies. In the words of a master investor, the real edge comes not from seeing what others don’t, but from holding your nerve longer than others can.
At TAMIM, we’ve long embraced this idea. We are, by nature and by design, long-term investors. We’re less interested in finding the next hype stock and more focused on understanding what a business is worth, independent of what the market happens to think this quarter. We believe the greatest gains in investing don’t come from being smarter or faster, but from being more patient and more grounded in value.
In this week’s newsletter, we take inspiration from recent writing by Howard Marks and others to revisit the core tenets of value investing, why they remain relevant today, especially in the context of rising rates, AI hype, geopolitical shifts, and volatile sentiment.
Investing vs Speculating
The line between investing and speculating has never been blurrier.
Daily price moves dominate headlines. Meme stocks soar and crash. Narratives swing with the wind. The temptation to chase trends, react to news, or follow the crowd is strong. Yet the truth is this: buying something solely because you think someone else will pay more for it later isn’t investing. It’s speculation.
Value investing, by contrast, is rooted in understanding the intrinsic worth of a business, its cash flows, balance sheet strength, competitive moat, and future earnings potential. You buy when the price is materially below that intrinsic value, and you sell when it isn’t. Everything else is noise.
This framework gives us clarity when markets are panicking or euphoric. It allows us to avoid overpaying for companies just because they’re “going up.” It also gives us the courage to buy when others are fearful, when valuations compress not because fundamentals have deteriorated, but because sentiment has.
Time is the Ally of the Patient
One of the central themes in Marks’ writing is this: the real differentiator isn’t forecasting skill. It’s temperament.
Can you wait while others panic? Can you hold a good business through a downturn? Can you accept short-term underperformance in pursuit of long-term outperformance?
Most investors can’t. They’re judged quarterly, or even daily. Their incentives are misaligned. As a result, they’re forced to act, even when the best move is to do nothing.
This is our edge. At TAMIM, we aren’t forced to act to satisfy anyone else’s timeline. We can wait for value to be realised. That’s how we’ve invested successfully in companies like EML Payments, Bravura Solutions, and Apiam Animal Health, businesses with sound fundamentals, temporary setbacks, and re-rating potential.
Winning slowly is still winning. And the gains are often larger than you think.
When the Market Gets It Wrong
In theory, markets are efficient. In practice, they’re often wrong, especially in the short term.
Market prices reflect consensus expectations. But consensus is shaped by fear, greed, recency bias, and groupthink. When expectations are too pessimistic, price diverges from value. That’s where opportunity lies.
Our job is to find those divergences.
Sometimes they come from misunderstood businesses (e.g. niche technology providers mispriced due to regulatory fear). Other times, from ignored sectors (like listed infrastructure or Japanese utilities). And often, from short-term issues (like cost blowouts, management turnover, or missed quarterly guidance) that obscure long-term potential.
We aren’t contrarian for the sake of it. We’re rational optimists with a valuation compass.
Small Caps: Where Mispricing Lives
The ASX small and mid-cap space is fertile ground for long-term investors. Why?
Lower analyst coverage: Many companies are under-researched, increasing the chance of mispricing.
Retail-driven sentiment: Emotional reactions to headlines often drive prices further from fair value.
Longer path to re-rating: Value can take time to emerge, which suits our patient capital.
This is why we focus on this part of the market in our TAMIM Australian All Cap and Small Cap Income portfolios. We do the work others don’t. We know that if we buy quality companies at sensible prices, time will eventually reward us.
Real Businesses, Real Value
Value investing has evolved. It’s no longer just about low P/E ratios or discounted net assets. In a world driven by intangible assets, innovation, and network effects, we must assess value more holistically.
We look for:
Strong and aligned management
Scalable unit economics
Consistent free cash flow generation
Competitive advantages (data, distribution, IP)
Resilience across economic cycles
This might lead us to own companies in less “sexy” sectors, like EROAD in telematics, Sterling Infrastructure in engineering services, or Arrow Electronics in supply chain logistics. These aren’t momentum darlings, but they are real businesses solving real problems.
And their value compounds over time.
The Patience Premium
What’s the reward for thinking long-term?
Call it the “patience premium.” Because few investors have the mandate, temperament, or discipline to wait, the market systematically undervalues companies that require time to prove themselves. This creates an inefficiency. One we’re happy to exploit.
Sometimes the re-rating takes quarters. Sometimes it takes years. But if the business compounds earnings and free cash flow, the payoff is worth it. Think of it like watching paint dry, boring at first, brilliant in hindsight.
TAMIM Takeaway
In a world obsessed with immediacy, value investing remains a quiet rebellion. It asks you to think longer, act less, and trust your analysis more than the crowd.
At TAMIM, we believe this is not only a sensible approach, it’s a superior one. Because in the end, winning slowly is still winning.
And when you own a portfolio of well-chosen, well-valued businesses, time becomes your most powerful ally.
This week’s TAMIM Reading List explores the fine line between innovation and vulnerability. We begin inside an automated warehouse where robots now pack your groceries, offering a glimpse into the future of logistics. Yet not all tech is on the rise, Tesla’s Cybertruck headlines a collapse in the used EV market, and a vital NASA satellite that supports climate monitoring and agriculture may be scrapped. Concerns about security emerge in different forms, from a surge in counterfeit currency to India’s successful testing of a nuclear-capable missile. Meanwhile, Sydney records its wettest period since 1858, and astronomers gain rare insight into an exploding star, reminding us that while we may shape much of our world, the universe still holds its surprises.
Iress Ltd has emerged as a formidable technology provider in the wealth management and trading sectors, strategically positioning itself for significant growth through disciplined transformation and innovative AI-driven initiatives.
Company Overview
Headquartered in Australia, Iress is a market leader in wealth and trading technology, serving 2,000 clients with over 60,000 end users across Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada, and South Africa. The company has successfully completed a comprehensive transformation program, streamlining its business and focusing on its core competencies in wealth and trading technologies.
Financial Performance Highlights
The first half of 2025 demonstrated the company’s robust performance and strategic direction. Key financial metrics include:
– Revenue increase of 6.8% on a continuing business basis
– Adjusted EBITDA of $60.2 million, up 8.7%
– Margin expansion to 24.1%
– Interim dividend of 11 cents per share (50% franked)
The company’s financial discipline is evident in its impressive metrics, with adjusted EBITDA nearly doubling since the first half of 2023 and earnings per share tripling over the same period.
Strategic Focus and Market Position
Iress has deliberately narrowed its focus to two primary sectors: wealth management and trading technology. The company boasts market leadership in Australia and the UK, with remarkably stable client relationships. Over 90% of its top 20 clients have been with the company for more than a decade, and the business maintains an exceptionally low churn rate of below 2%.
The recurring revenue model is particularly strong, with over 94% of revenues being recurring, providing a consistent and reliable income stream that supports ongoing investment and innovation.
AI and Technology Initiatives
A significant portion of Iress’s current strategy revolves around leveraging artificial intelligence and data capabilities. The company has recently appointed a head of AI with extensive experience from AWS and Commonwealth Bank of Australia, signalling a serious commitment to technological innovation.
Key AI and technology initiatives include:
– Development of AI-driven wealth solutions for unadvised markets
– Launch of Iris Data Insights and Funds Flow product
– Continued development of retirement income solutions
– Building advanced data and AI platforms
The company sees substantial opportunities in the unadvised market, with approximately 12 million unadvised individuals in Australia and 25 million in the UK. Iress believes its trusted brand, deep industry expertise, and extensive data assets position it uniquely to capitalise on this market.
Potential Takeover Speculation
Management confirmed recent speculation about potential private equity interest, with Blackstone and Thoma Bravo showing interest at acquiring the company.
The company’s streamlined structure, strong financial performance, and innovative technology portfolio make it an attractive potential acquisition target and hence we believe a deal is likely.
Growth Strategy and Outlook
Iress has outlined an ambitious yet disciplined growth strategy focused on:
– Investing in existing wealth and trading businesses
– Developing new revenue streams through data and AI technologies
– Maintaining a strong balance sheet with low leverage
– Implementing a stranded cost program to generate $12-16 million in corporate cost savings
The company expects revenue growth to accelerate from 2-3% to 4-5% in the current year, with EBITDA margins improving to the mid-20s. Management projects a potential revenue growth trajectory of 6-8% over the coming years and Ebitda margins of 28%.
Trading Technology Advancements
In the trading sector, Iress has made significant strides, including the successful implementation of the ASX single open project. This achievement aligns the Australian market with international standards and provides a foundation for future technological enhancements.
The company is developing a new cloud-native Execution Management System (EMS) that will improve connectivity, interoperability, and client functionality across its trading platforms.
TAMIM Takeaway
Iress Ltd stands at an exciting inflection point. With a clear strategic vision, strong financial performance, and a commitment to technological innovation, the company is well-positioned to capitalise on growing opportunities in wealth management and trading technologies.
The combination of a robust core business, significant AI initiatives, and a disciplined approach to growth makes Iress an intriguing player in the financial technology landscape. Investors and industry observers will be watching closely as the company continues to execute its strategic plan.
Australia is at a critical crossroads in its energy journey. On one side lies the global imperative to decarbonise, driven by climate goals and investor pressure. On the other, the need to ensure energy reliability and affordability for households and businesses. And now, layered atop this energy trilemma, is a digital revolution demanding ever more electricity, especially from hyperscale data centres powering AI and cloud infrastructure.
Yet, despite this complex backdrop, Australia is lagging in the one thing that binds it all together: energy infrastructure. Political indecision, policy fragmentation, and a failure to move quickly on transmission, storage, and firming capacity threaten to derail the transition. At TAMIM, we believe this creates a paradoxical investment opportunity. As governments struggle to deliver, private capital can step in where policy fails.
AGL, The Canary in the Decarbonisation Coal Mine
The recent results from AGL Energy (ASX: AGL) offered a sobering view of what happens when ambition outpaces capability. Despite its best efforts to reposition as a renewable energy champion, AGL’s underlying profit dropped 25% to $576 million. Its legacy coal assets remain critical to grid reliability, but they are ageing and costly. Meanwhile, renewable rollout and firming capacity have lagged.
Even with Grok Ventures’ activist pressure and a refreshed board committed to climate targets, AGL is struggling to execute. Its slow and costly pivot highlights the challenge of being a first mover without adequate infrastructure and regulatory support. The company faces the dual burden of maintaining outdated baseload assets while investing in new ones, a capital-intensive balancing act.
For investors, the lesson is clear: the transition cannot be achieved through good intentions alone. Infrastructure must lead ambition, not lag behind it.
Gas Paralysis
Victoria’s recent decision to delay or potentially cancel a critical gas import terminal is another example of infrastructure inertia. As coal retires and renewables ramp up, gas remains essential for peaking and firming power. Yet, instead of supporting this bridge fuel, political risk has led to a vacuum in new investment.
This decision puts added pressure on the east coast gas market, already tight and exposed to global LNG price shocks. It also increases the risk of blackouts during periods of low renewable output. The result? More expensive energy and declining reliability.
This is precisely where infrastructure investors should be paying attention. Players like APA Group, Origin Energy, Santos, and Jemena are positioned to benefit from gas infrastructure buildouts, especially if governments ultimately recognise the need for practical, not ideological, energy solutions.
Power-Hungry AI: Data Centres Are the New Aluminium Smelters
Australia’s energy story isn’t just about decarbonisation; it’s increasingly about digitisation. As AI adoption accelerates, data centres are becoming energy giants. According to recent estimates, data centre power consumption could triple by 2030.
Yet the grid was not designed for this. In places like Western Sydney and Inner Melbourne, where data centre clustering is occurring, the grid is already straining. Major US and Asian tech companies seeking to build in Australia are finding connection times delayed, capacity constrained, and project viability threatened.
This opens up massive opportunity. Companies involved in grid augmentation, storage, and long-duration firming, from listed infrastructure players to global renewables specialists, will be key to enabling this growth. Investors must also look globally for solutions. Japan’s restart of idle nuclear capacity, including Hokkaido Electric and Kansai Electric, offers a case study in how baseload capacity is being reborn.
The Opportunity, Invest Where Governments Are Dragging Their Feet
With government-led projects stalling or bogged down in red tape, listed infrastructure is increasingly where the action is. Investors can tap into companies building the digital backbone (Quanta Services), enabling energy redundancy (Engie, A2A), or developing critical gas, transmission, and storage capacity.
Global capital is flowing into the space. Private equity, sovereign wealth funds, and listed infrastructure vehicles are now hunting for scalable, cash-yielding projects in politically stable jurisdictions. Australia should be a prime target, if only the permitting and approval systems would catch up.
Locally, players like Transgrid, AusNet, and APA Group remain core watchlist names. Internationally, Quanta, Sempra, NextEra, and Japan’s nuclear operators warrant close attention. The shift from 100% renewable narratives to balanced, diversified energy mixes is finally gaining traction, with real implications for asset values.
The TAMIM Takeaway
When governments hesitate and policy drags, private capital steps in to solve the real-world bottlenecks. Whether it’s power to homes or energy for AI workloads, the global trend is clear: infrastructure, particularly energy, is not keeping pace with demand. In Australia, the challenge is especially acute, and for investors, that’s a glaring opportunity.
We continue to look for companies, locally and globally, that are solving infrastructure problems others are still debating. This includes grid operators, gas transporters, storage innovators, and even overlooked Japanese nuclear assets. As the energy transition becomes more complex and capital-intensive, we want to be positioned where investment meets necessity.
Investing in infrastructure isn’t just about bricks and wires. It’s about underwriting resilience, relevance, and return.
Sector: Industrial Pumps, Environmental Systems, Precision Machinery
Sector: Industrial Pumps, Environmental Systems, Precision Machinery
Sector: Engineering, Design & Environmental Consulting
Sector: Engineering, Design & Environmental Consulting
Sector: Cloud Infrastructure, Secure Networking
Sector: Cloud Infrastructure, Secure Networking
