Local Super SA-NT renews Jana, appoints Brandywine

Local Super SA-NT has signed up consultant Jana Investment Advisers for another three year contract and appointed a new $57 million mandate to global fixed interest manager Brandywine.

After a successful three years with Jana, the $1.2 billion fund decided not to put the consultancy out to tender but to renew the contract after an extensive negotiation. That contract will commence in June and Caroline Gibson, Local Super SA-NT’s chief investment officer, said the fund would review its strategic asset allocation and investment options early in the new financial year. “We’ll look at the portfolio objectives and make sure they’re appropriate,” she said. The fund has also made the decision to allocate 10 per cent of its Australian equities portfolio to AMP Capital’s sustainable share fund, boosting that mandate from $6 million to $45 million. AMP Capital previously managed the Australian equities portion of the fund’s sustainable share investment option. “Their consistent performance and a desire to support this style of management lead the Committee to allocate them 10 per cent of the Australian equities sector,” Gibson said. Brandywine has been allocated 25 per cent of the fund’s diversified fixed interest mandate, or an initial $57 million. “Our investment committee decided late last year to diversify our line-up in this sector and seek a manager with a style that contrasted our incumbent managers, Credit Suisse Asset Management and PIMCO. Brandywine is considered to be benchmark agnostic, with a style very different to the existing managers,” Gibson said. No existing mandates were terminated with the new mandates funded from a slight reduction across all managers.