Indara, AustralianSuper's struggling telecom tower division, is looking for a new CEO while evaluating its problematic smart city infrastructure businesses.

In 2021, the $365 billion superannuation fund paid $1.9 billion to acquire a 70% share in Indara, a company that constructs and operates mobile phone towers. Singtel, the parent company of Optus, owned the remaining. AustralianSuper later increased its ownership to 86% when Indara promised to construct 565 tower sites for the Singaporean-owned business over a five-year period. However, Indara has struggled to turn a profit, and its tower build-out has been behind schedule, causing tension between Optus and AustralianSuper. In the 2024 fiscal year, the tower company's losses fell to over $81 million, and Cameron Evans, the previous CEO of Indara, departed at the end of December.

Michael Ferguson, the former chief financial officer of contractor Downer EDI, is now serving as Indara's acting CEO while the company searches for a new leader. Write-downs on the smart city infrastructure providers that Indara purchased for $62.8 million in cash from Brookfield Infrastructure in late 2022 accounted for a significant portion of the company's yearly losses.

Indara said at the time of the purchase that it would become a "full-service provider" with the support of the smart infrastructure companies ENE.HUB and HUB, which supply street light poles and other street furniture with sensors or Wi-Fi connections. However, Indara said in its fiscal 2024 results that the commercialization of the services—which are provided to councils—had been delayed.

About two-thirds of the company's original worth, or $43.4 million, was written down by Indara, including equipment and intellectual property. At the beginning of 2024, Scott Williams and Robert Matchett, the companies' co-CEOs, departed Indara. After merging the two companies, Indara is analyzing the operations to determine which aspects are worthwhile retaining.

According to a representative for AustralianSuper, the business is actively collaborating with its clients to determine the best way to move these agreements.