Catholic Super has terminated an international equities mandate with Barclays Global Investors (BGI) in favour of three boutique managers.
Roughly $120 million managed by BGI has been split evenly between three offshore boutiques: Pzena Investment Management, a value manager based in New York; Generation Investment Management, a growth manger based in London; and Taube Hodson Stonex, a thematic, core-growth manager also from London. Bill Currey, investment officer at Catholic Super, said that there had been a trend towards boutique managers at the fund. “BGI haven’t done too badly, but we tend to prefer smaller boutiques to large firms,” he said. “[By investing with boutiques,] we are hoping to get better performance, despite the fact they may be a bit more expensive.” The funds are to manage international equities, and possibly some cash holdings, Currey said.
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
