But Stokes says gas remains its focus on the energy front, despite flagging the promise that the green energy transition provides for its infrastructure business.

“If we look at the renewables investment, we certainly think that’s a big opportunity on the infrastructure investment side,” Stokes said.

But gas still wins over renewables when it comes to Seven’s own investments. The company is confident Beach is well positioned to deliver gas into a tightening domestic and international, market, as well as demand for gas as a transitional energy source as coal stations close.

“Primarily, we see the opportunity that gas has in supporting renewables ... that’s where we see an opportunity to play, more so than investing in the renewable assets themselves. We think others, with a lower cost of capital than we have, are probably going to be better suited to do that,” Stokes said.

“We’re in a very healthy mining environment now, it’s a long cycle attribute in our view.”

“Over the last decade, we’ve really sort of reposition SGH (Seven Group) to be more exposed to the three core themes: Mining production, infrastructure construction, and the energy transition … we’re less exposed to that traditional consumer market where I think there’s probably a higher recession risk,” he added.

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