Media

In the Media: David Cubr's article in APREA Knowledge Brief

Date: November 2, 2026

What do a toll road, a power grid and the supermarket on the edge of town have in common? More than you might think: all three earn their income from things people use every day, in good years and bad. So are retail parks a good fit for investors who usually turn to infrastructure for steady, inflation-linked income? That is the question David Cubr, Group CEO of ZDR Investments, sets out to answer in his latest article for the Asia Pacific Real Assets Association (APREA).

Published in Volume 19 of the APREA Knowledge Brief, Building Tomorrow: Infrastructure in Transition, the article makes a bold case. Behind the shop signs, the grocery-anchored retail park turns out to be one of the most infrastructure-like assets an investor can own.

Retail parks through an infrastructure lens

Most investors file retail parks under retail and move on. Look at the building instead, and it is much closer to a logistics asset: the last stop in the food supply chain, sitting right next to the households it serves.

"Categorising it as retail describes the transaction. It does not describe the function."

Then come the questions that matter most to investors: why the income from these schemes behaves the way infrastructure investors like it to, how the format has held its ground against e-commerce, and why demand across Europe is moving in its direction.

"The digital channel did not displace the format. It absorbed it."

What it means for investors in Asia Pacific

The European format reflects local car ownership, settlement density and planning rules, so it does not transplant directly to Asian markets. The underlying question does: which categories of household spending continue through every phase of the cycle, and who owns the physical point where that spending happens.

Access to the European answer has become easier. Singapore-domiciled variable capital company (VCC) structures let accredited investors in the region hold Central European convenience retail within a familiar legal and tax framework, without building expertise in each local market. ZDR Investments SG VCC is one such feeder, giving investors in Southeast Asia access to the group's European portfolio.

"That is an infrastructure question. It is only asked about retail because of where the checkout happens to sit."
David Cubr, CEO of the ZDR Investments Group

Read the full article

David's article is available in full, together with the rest of Knowledge Brief Volume 19, on the APREA website.

This article is provided for general information purposes only and does not constitute investment advice, an offer, or a recommendation to buy or sell any financial instrument. Past performance is not a guarantee of future returns, and the value of investments may fall as well as rise.

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