The creation of the new role of head of equities at AustralianSuper could result in Australia's largest industry super fund bringing the management of part of its $24 billion equity portfolio in-house.
AustralianSuper yesterday announced the appointment of former Aegon Asset Management United Kingdom head of equities Innes McKeand to the new role and he will be responsible for examining what management model will deliver the best value to the fund's members.
"One of the activities that Innes will be involved in is investigating ways to improve the value we deliver to our members. That will include looking at what could we do in-house and what can we do through external managers," AustralianSuper investments senior manager Peter Curtis told Investor Weekly.
"We are just at the preliminary stages of looking at what the opportunities may be. What he will need to do is examine it and build a business case."
AustralianSuper has an investment team of 30 professionals, but the fund does not manage any equity portfolios directly.
"We are currently a manager of managers," Curtis said.
The creation of the new role was a direct consequence of the continuing growth of AustralianSuper's asset size.
"It is just part of our ongoing strategies to look at what capabilities we need as we continue to grow our funds under management. We just have that 9 per cent flowing in the door every day," Curtis said.
The new role would not change AustralianSuper chief investment officer Mark Delaney's responsibilities, he said.
"Mark's role as chief investment officer will still be focused around the broader decisions around asset allocation and making sure we have the capability in-house to manage the growing portfolio," he said.
McKeand will join the fund on 12 September.
