AustralianSuper Merges Infra, Property Teams

AustralianSuper will merge its infrastructure and property teams into one global real asset team. The fund has appointed Nik Kemp as Head of Global Real Assets and he will lead the merged teams.

Kemp, who previously the fund’s Head of Infrastructure, will report to Jason Peasley, Head of Mid Risk at AustralianSuper.

The fund said the decision to merge the two team was made in recognition of the increasingly close relationship of the two asset classes, the need to drive global economies of scale, and harness complimentary expertise across real assets as the fund expects to double the size of its Mid Risk portfolio by 2030 to more than $150 billion.

“By bringing the expertise and knowledge of the two asset classes together, we can maximise the best of both to support global deal origination and continue to drive value creation in ownership for fund members,” Kemp said.

“By combining the teams, we can take a more research and sector-led approach to investing, aligned to our broader one portfolio approach,” he said.

The merger of the two teams comes after Mark Delaney, Chief Investment Officer of AustralianSuper, acknowledged in May this year that the fund had been struggling with its property strategy.

At the Morningstar annual conference, he said the property strategy had been problematic due to overweights in the wrong sectors.

“It has been really disappointing; it was long and short the wrong strategies. We had a strategy of overweighting retail and having more international property than Australian property,” he said at the time.

“Both of them were the wrong decision,” he said.

AustralianSuper announced today that it had also appointed Paul Clark as Head of European Real Assets. He was previously Head of European Property.

The Head of American Infrastructure, Derek Chu, will become Acting Head of American Real Assets pending finalisation of the property component of the real assets strategy in North America.

Monica Ryu, Senior Investment Director (Infrastructure) at AustralianSuper, has been appointed Head of Asset Management in the new Real Assets team.

The fund is also on the lookout for a new Head of Australian Real Assets and has created a new role, Head of Strategic Opportunities, to work alongside the fund’s current real assets investment strategies.

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