Raft of changes at AustralianSuper

There have been several changes at AustralianSuper including new appointments to its investment team and an intention to triple its private credit exposure.

The first move was changes to its investment leadership team following an organisational review which would see the fund’s total portfolio management and asset allocation and research teams brought together under Alistair Barker as head of asset allocation.

Current head of asset allocation and research, Carl Astorri, would move to the UK as head of investment, Europe and expand the UK-based investment team.

The Australian equities team would become a stand-alone function, led by head of Australian equities, Shaun Manuell, and international equities and private equity would become a second standalone team. Head of equities, Justin Pascoe, will leave the fund after almost 3.5 years.

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Chief investment officer, Mark Delaney, said: “‘As we grow, we will continue our internalisation strategy, increase our deployment of funds globally and look for new and innovative ways to deliver returns and drive down costs for members.

“‘These important changes lay the foundation for this future and leave us well placed to manage the challenges of today and the opportunities of tomorrow.”

The fund also announced a new partnership with Churchill Asset Management to invest in traditional senior and unitranche loans to private equity-backed US middle market companies.

AustralianSuper already invested $7 billion in private credit and planned to triple this in the coming years through direct lending and strategic partnerships.

Head of private credit, Nick Ward, said: “AustralianSuper is looking to work selectively with managers that can demonstrate disciplined performance across market cycles as we expand the US private credit portfolio.

“Churchill has a strong long-term track record of market leadership, and we look forward to building a long-lasting partnership with the team at Churchill and Nuveen.”

Finally, the fund extended its partnership with Link Group’s Retirement and Superannuation Solutions, which began in 2014, for two more years. This would allow Link to continue to provide super administration and customer engagement services to the fund.