Aware Super

The $160 billion industry fund has found a new head for its $90 billion public equities portfolio in an alumnus of passive investing giants like Vanguard and BlackRock. It’s also pulled the trigger on promotions in the public equities team.

The $160 billion fund says that its essential worker housing program stacks up as an investment for both its members and the country’s future. But current policy settings mean few funds can follow its example.

Uncertainty, dispersion and volatility are “magical words” for hedge funds, and the $160 billion Aware Super has reframed its thinking around the liquid alternatives space in a more complex macro environment.

The creation of a new investment data platform underpins Aware’s march to managing half of its projected $250 billion FUM internally. State Street is providing the glue that holds it all together.

With Cbus eyeing the $100 billion mark, it’s figuring out what it can do well and what should be left to everybody else. And while other funds can’t wait to head overseas, it’s decided to stay home.

One of Australia’s largest super funds is now also one of its largest owners of retirement living assets following the acquisition of 100 per cent of Oak Tree in a demographic play.

The $250 billion industry fund has hunted two new heads for its investment team while it chips away at a digital transformation project that will support its move to internalise 50 per cent of assets.

Build-to-rent has become the model of choice for institutional investors looking to pad their returns and alleviate Australia’s housing crisis, but a different approach might make everybody better off.

Big funds can be cheaper and drive hard bargains in the private markets – but it’s easier to see them coming and harder for them to get money where it needs to go.

AustralianSuper’s appointment of a new deputy CIO with the lion’s share of responsibility for its overseas investments demonstrates the growing importance of international diversification for the country’s biggest funds.