Australia's A$2.1t pension funds working to cut out the middleman

Sydney

AUSTRALIAN pension funds are luring dozens of portfolio managers to work in-house to boost returns in a cut-throat investment environment, a move that could see external fund managers lose A$230 million (S$246 million) in annual fees.

Two of Australia's largest pension funds, AustralianSuper and Cbus, intend to manage in-house at least 20 per cent of their combined A$140 billion in assets within the next decade.

Both plan to hire in-house investment managers to run their equities, fixed income, infrastructure and property portfolios, rather than relying entirely on external experts.

"I wouldn't be surprised if we had (a team of) 60 over the next few years," said Kristian Fok, Cbus's executive manager in …