South Australia-based Statewide Super is searching for an internal investment manager to assess research from its asset consultants, following the departure of a liaison officer in February.
The new hire would analyse reports and paperwork from the $2 billion fund’s two asset consultants, Access Capital Advisers and Morningstar, before reporting to the fund’s board, Frances Magill, Statewide Super chief executive officer, said. “It’s a risk mitigation role. This is about making sure that when the board makes a decision, that decision is carried out,” Magill said. “It involves keeping track of the paperwork and looking at the information that’s coming to us.” Graham Croft, a former Statewide employee who left the fund in February, was responsible for liaising between the fund’s asset consultants. Magill said this position had been elevated to that of investment manager, and while the fund already had a two-person investment management team, the new position involved “higher level” risk management work, since it involved greater analysis of the consultants’ research. The industry fund aimed to employ two more people to its investment management team within the calendar year, Magill added.
Future Fund chief investment officer Ben Samild said that FY24 has been a great year for alpha creation, thanks to strong returns in equities and, unusually, across multiple hedge fund strategies all at the same time. He reflected the past few years have been “a difficult time to be an asset owner and to generate positive returns for risk assets” but the Future Fund is tracking well of its long-term mandate.
Simon Hoyle and Darcy SongSeptember 4, 2024
