Behind AustralianSuper’s global expansion

Investment Magazine

When AustralianSuper opened its first offshore office in Beijing in 2012 it had $46 billion in assets, cashflows of $8 billion a year and 39 investment staff. Fast forward to 2024 and around half of the fund’s $341 billion is invested offshore, it has offices in London, New York and Beijing, and is growing exponentially. Part of the genesis of the offshore expansion is the pace of growth of the fund. Fuelled by Australia’s mandated superannuation system –11.5 per cent inflows per year, regardless of investment returns or new membership – the fund is projected to grow to $700 billion by 2030 and $1 trillion not long after. It is expected that 70 per cent of new flows will be invested offshore.

Deputy chief investment officer Damian Moloney, who joined the fund in 2018, heads the strategic direction, governance, oversight and enablement of the fund’s global investments program from London. Moloney explains how the offshore strategy has evolved, with the success of the operations refocusing strategy from the initial expectation that the international offices would simply manage in region assets. “Because we have been successful in recruiting the right people and teams, and the AUM is much bigger, we decided to manage outside the region. So that platform can be leveraged to manage offshore across the board, that’s what we are doing in London,” he tells Investment Magazine sister publication Top1000funds.com in an interview.

The rest of this article can be found at investmentmagazine.com.au.