AUSTRALIA’S biggest pension fund is planning to pour more than £8 billion (S$13.6 billion) into large-scale investments in Britain across public and private markets over the next six years.

AustralianSuper, which manages more than US$200 billion for members, will invest in UK assets such as precinct developments, digital infrastructure, ports and the energy transition, chief executive officer Paul Schroder said in an interview. The fund reiterated its commitment to the UK after making a similar spending pledge last year.

Australian and Canadian pension funds have become large investors in the UK in the past few decades as British pension funds have cut their holdings, the latter a trend that the government is trying to reverse. AustralianSuper has amassed an £8 billion portfolio in the country, including the London redevelopments of King’s Cross and Canada Water.

“We have formed the view that to be able to serve our members we need to be global,” Schroder said in the interview. “London is very important and a global centre.”

Schroder said the fund had been slow to understand the post-pandemic impact of work and lifestyle trends on some real estate assets, especially in the US. It was now pivoting into other types of property sectors such as logistics and data centres.

The fund has about 100 staff based in its London office, from where it runs its European operations, and still plans to triple that number by 2030. Its deputy Chief Investment Officer and head of global equities are both now based in the UK capital.

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“We previously thought that London will be just about unlisted markets,” Schroder said. “But we will be running our global equities team out of London so it’s about listed markets too.” BLOOMBERG