First State Super, a Sydney-based fund with A$71 billion in superannuation and retirement assets, hired Neuberger Berman to manage an A$1.6 billion ($1.2 billion) emerging markets equity portfolio offering exposures to select risk factors, according to a Neuberger news release.
Eben van Wyk, portfolio manager for systematic beta with First State Super, said in the news release Monday that his fund worked in partnership with Neuberger Berman over the past year to customize an approach to “systematically harvest non-market risk premia in emerging market equities with controlled cost.”
Executives at First State Super and Neuberger Berman couldn’t be reached immediately for further details regarding which non-market-cap-weighted factors will be targeted, or how the portfolio will be managed.
Mr. van Wyk said First State Super is building out its internal systematic beta capabilities and might “eventually move (the emerging markets portfolio) in-house alongside other strategies managed internally.”
Neuberger Berman executives said in the release that the scope of their firm’s partnership with First State Super could expand further, with Wai Lee, its New York-based head of the quantitative investment group and director of research noting that the firm is now starting “our next research project with the First State Super team.”
Further details on that joint research weren’t immediately available.
