The $2.1 billion Catholic Superannuation Fund has completed a review of its asset consultant and reappointed Mercer Investment Consulting.
The tender process included a line-up of the usual asset consulting suspects, according to Tim Hughes, Catholic Super chief investment officer. Hughes said there was no planned review of the fund’s strategic asset allocation. “They’ll [Mercer] just keep doing what they’ve been doing for now,” he said. Currently the fund has a 36.5 per cent allocation to Australian shares and 25 per cent allocation to international shares with a 4 per cent allocation to private equity and a 7.5 per cent allocation to absolute return funds. Earlier this year the fund dropped Peter Morgan’s 452 Capital from a $70 million Australian equities mandate, appointing existing manager Perpetual. Hughes said that when Morgan left Perpetual to start up 452 Capital in late 2002, Catholic Super allocated $70 million of an existing $140 million Australian shares mandate with Perpetual to 452 Capital. “Things just didn’t work out with Peter quite as we hoped,” Hughes said. That $70 million has now been returned to Perpetual.
There is one investment area where Insignia’s $180 billion super arm has not lost money for the past 17 years, which is what it calls the insurance-related investments. The alternatives strategy is gaining popularity among asset owners due to its diversification benefit, but Insignia’s super and asset management investment chief Dan Farmer warns it is a space where investors can suffer if they “stumble in without doing the homework”.
Darcy SongJanuary 23, 2025
