Keen to add more in-house management to its team, Australia’s $34 billion Construction & Building Unions Superannuation (CBUS) will add staff to its infrastructure investment division.
The pension fund will add three people to the team, creating an infrastructure department that is eight members strong, with the goal of having 30% of the infrastructure portfolio directly invested.
“We feel that it is an area of material benefit having internal capabilities,” CBUS’ Head of Infrastructure Diana Callebaut said in an interview with Bloomberg, who broke the news. “Once we move into the asset management phase, we will look at that and see if we need a few more individuals.”
Both local and overseas direct infrastructure investment opportunities will be scoured by the in-house team, which will also manage the relationship with external fund managers.
Taking a page out of the Canadian model, CBUS’ decision is in line with a growing trend of cutting external managers in favor of hiring internal staff to produce greater returns and reduce costs as well as fees. Bloomberg reports that the A$130 billion AustralianSuper ($99.4 billion), the country’s largest fund, announced plans last year to eventually manage half of its assets internally.
Tags: Australia, Construction & Building Unions Superannuation, Infrastructure, Pension