AustralianSuper is committed to increase the amount of funds managed by external managers by 60 per cent to $80 billion.
The $200 billion AustralianSuper is planning to increase the amount of funds managed by external managers by 60 per cent to $80 billion ‘over the next few years’, compared to the $50 billion currently.
Joseph Wahba, Head of External Managers at AustralianSuper, said the increase was due to the fund’s growth and there was an ongoing need to find quality external managers to complement AustralianSuper’s internal equities teams.
“AustralianSuper is committed to a hybrid approach where our internal equity teams are complemented by high quality external managers,’ Wahba said in a media release.
“Over the long term, we are confident we can substantially outperform a passive portfolio by selecting and carefully combining internal and external active equity managers,” he said.
“Over the long term, we are confident we can substantially outperform a passive portfolio by selecting and carefully combining internal and external active equity managers – Joseph Wahba
In addition to investment returns, it is understood that the fund receives over $1 billion in inflows every month, which is a key driver behind the rapid growth. AustralianSuper expects to be managing $500 billion in assets by 2026.
AustralianSuper is about to appoint its first managers covering the Japanese and Indian markets and will continue to increase the China A share allocation. In addition, it will seek to add a range of sector specific, specialist or bespoke mandates.
The fund has always maintained a diverse group of external managers in its international equity portfolio, and currently has 12 managers, who together manage $47.8 billion. In comparison, the fund’s internal international equities team manages $31,1 billion in assets, according to the most recent annual report.
However, the situation is different in its domestic equity portfolio. In previous years, AustralianSuper has terminated all of its external Australian equity managers apart from IFM Investors, in which it holds a direct stake.
The internal Australian equities team now manages around $45 billion in assets, while IFM manages about $9 billion, according to the annual report.
Appointments
In order to deal with the anticipated growth in the number of external managers, AustralianSuper has made several appointments.
The fund has appointed Matthew Moore as an Associate Portfolio Manager, Rachel Mohr as a Senior Analyst, Denise Yeong as a Senior Analyst and Yee Khoon Tee as an Analyst.
Moore joins AustralianSuper having held senior roles at First State Super and Health Super for more than 10 years.
Mohr joins from Frontier, where she was a Consultant focussing on equities, while Yeong joins from Victorian Funds Management Corporation, where she spent several years in the manager evaluation team working on both Australian equities and global equities.
Tee is an internal promotion.
__________
[i3] Insights is the official educational bulletin of the Investment Innovation Institute [i3]. It covers major trends and innovations in institutional investing, providing independent and thought-provoking content about pension funds, insurance companies and sovereign wealth funds across the globe.