Cbus, the A$34 billion ($25.9 billion) superannuation fund for Australia's construction and building industries, announced Monday it will boost its internal investment team to 59 people from 34 people during the financial year through June 2017.
The Melbourne-based fund said in a news release that it is aiming to extract “maximum value and returns while minimizing outflows, especially through fees,” as Cbus works to effectively invest a pool of assets the fund predicts will likely to grow to A$50 billion over the coming three to five years.
Infrastructure investments will be a focus for the superannuation fund's growing internal investment team.
Kristian Fok, Cbus executive manager investment strategy, said in the news release that “while retaining our current external managers, we're focusing on the significant direct investment opportunities for Cbus in greenfield infrastructure and small- to medium-size brownfield assets.”
Mr. Fok said in an e-mail that the boost in internal resources will include “additional people in our asset allocation area, a new specialized position within alternative opportunistic growth and a quantitative capability that we expect will enable us to explore new ways to gain exposure to factor investing.”
Cbus “will continue to run a hybrid arrangement for investing, using both managers and direct execution of investments where appropriate,” Mr. Fok said.
