Industry Funds Management's (IFM) new chief executive Brett Himbury wants to see the asset manager produce profits in order to offer competitive salaries to its investment staff.
"We are going to make a profit as a business," Himbury said on Friday. "I've told our industry fund shareholders that we are going to do that."
"They've said: 'don't make a profit, we want it in the form of lower fees'. But we have said: 'we must compete with the Macquarie Banks, the Tyndalls and whoever else you want to name, and in order to do that, we need financial flexibility'," he said.
IFM manages about $24 billion in funds on behalf of industry super funds. Himbury said he did not want to get rid of the not-for-profit heritage of the asset manager, but said the firm needed capital to drive its international expansion and hire top managers.
IFM opened offices in London and New York in 2006 and 2007 and this expansion tripled the cost base of the asset manager, Himbury said.
"Our focus over the next five years is to not only bring that industry, not-for-profit ethos, but to compete with absolutely the best in the world," he said.
Himbury, who was the former chief executive of Tyndall Investments, started his job as chief executive of the Melbourne-headquartered asset manager in April this year.
