The $28 billion AustralianSuper will hold all inflows in cash until “;the market picture becomes clearer”;, chief executive Ian Silk told a gathering of participating employers last week.
Silk said AustralianSuper’s trustees had made no major asset allocation changes at their investment meeting the week before, and would not until a longer-term bear or bull market trend became apparent. There was no need for undue alarm at a loss of 0.8 per cent for the default balanced option in July, he added. “;We hate to lose money at any time, but this latest bout of volatility has to be put into perspective,”; he said. “;I was listening to the news on the radio after a couple of the big one-day falls, and the announcer said the market had not been so low since…and I was waiting for The Great Depression, World War 2…and he continued, January. All that hype and we’d only lost the gains of 2007.”; Silk said AustralianSuper’s direct exposure to the sub-prime mortgage malaise was a $2.3 million investment in a Basis capital fund via a hedge fund-of-funds. “;That’s equal to about one fifteen-thousandth of our assets, so without being blaise, it’s not going to bother us too much either way.”; Silk said it was too early to tell what effect a tighter credit environment might have on AustralianSuper’s overweight allocation to unlisted assets, including private equity. Meanwhile, AustralianSuper will introduce a market-linked pension from January 1, 2008, responding to what chief executive Ian Silk called “;our biggest demand”; from members.
Since taking over the top job at the $44 billion Funds SA more than a year ago, chief executive John Piteo has ushered in an investment function overhaul and wrapped up an important stage of the fund’s five-year data transformation program. It pledges to recentre around investment performance and more efficient processes, as the “missing piece” has been found in incoming CIO Con Michalakis.
Darcy SongJanuary 10, 2025
