There are many reasons why TPA is superior to a SAA. But the TPA portfolio construction process requires decisions to ensure that the governance, people and investment model line up with organisation effectiveness. How does Cbus frame how they look at their portfolios, play to their strengths and determine investment conviction?
Speaker:
Kristian Fok, chief investment officer, Cbus
Moderator: Amanda White, director of institutional content, top1000funds.com
Key Takeaways
- Organising teams to develop thinking outside of investment silos has helped Cbus navigate recent liquidity challenges and devote deeper thinking to structural trends, the $54 billion fund’s CIO Kristian Fok has said.
- Fok described the “substantial demand” from Cbus’s members for redemptions and transferal of individual fund balances to cash during the March market sell down sparked by the global pandemic and the subsequent payout under the government mandated early release of super scheme.
- Fok said he and his team looked at the different ways to create liquidity without adversely impacting flexibility to invest when the opportunity to invest came about – and the opportunity did.
- Cbus saw a quarter of a billion dollars switch into cash in one day right at the time markets had sold off, Fok said.
- Along with pulling together thinking from its various teams Cbus went to its custodian to pull together private repurchase agreements, a move designed to unlock further liquidity buffers, Fok said.
- The focus on stepping out of asset class specialisations will continue to influence the fund’s approach as it internalises more of its investment management capabilities and continues to consider the big trends influencing asset prices globally, Fok said.
