NSW State Super has broadened its manager outlook and shifted its exposure away from domestic equities and towards international stocks.
State Super's latest asset allocation report shows a 2.8 percentage point decrease in exposure to Australian equities, from 37.5 per cent to 34.7 per cent, and a subsequent 0.7 percentage point increase in favour of international equities, from 27.9 per cent to 28.6 per cent.
The new international managers are AQR Capital Management, which takes 0.87 per cent of the international fund, and AXA Rosenberg Investment Management, which also takes 0.87 per cent of the fund. Both are long/short mandates.
Lazard Asset Management and Trilogy Asset Management have been appointed as emerging markets managers, each taking a 0.31 per cent share of the international fund.
The fund has also increased its exposure to alternative investments with the appointment of absolute return fund GMO Australia and value add property fund EG Funds Management. Exposure to alternatives has increased from 4.5 per cent to just over 6 per cent.
Macquarie Investment Management was appointed to run a long/short domestic equities portfolio. Don McLean, the chief executive of State Super's trustee, the SAS Trustee Corporation, said the manager changes broadened the fund's diversity.
"The core theme is to get diversity across asset sectors and investment strategies, in particular international equities and absolute return strategies," McLean said.
