The almost $50 billion Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) fund is recruiting for a portfolio manager to run a newly created Australian listed property allocation.
According to the job description, the role entails managing the new Australian real estate investment trust (REIT) portfolio to “achieve investment returns that are better than” its benchmark on a risk-adjusted basis.
“In addition to directly managing the Australian REIT portfolio, this position is expected to contribute positively to the success of ACC’s other investment portfolios, by working cooperatively with other members of the Investment team.”
Excluding the new REIT pool, the ACC fund manages nine discrete portfolios – looking after almost all Australasian assets in-house while outsourcing the majority of global funds – and four overlay strategies.
“We allocate funds between distinct investment portfolios, each focused on different investment markets (global and domestic),” the 2023 ACC annual report says. “We aim to add value both in how we allocate funds between different investment markets (that is, asset allocation) and in how the portfolios perform within each investment market (that is, active management).”
Over the 12 months to the end of March last year the ACC fund, headed by Paul Dyer, returned 7.25 per cent before costs – slightly underperforming its composite benchmark result of 7.27 per cent.
Elsewhere last week, the country’s largest community trust, Foundation North, named former Fisher Funds CIO, Frank Jasper, to chair its investment committee.
Jasper, who also serves on the ASB investment committee, replaces Michelle Tsui in the Foundation North role.
Tsui took up the Foundation North board chair spot early in June as incumbent, Walter Wells, stepped down. The planned governance reshuffle also saw Foundation North deputy chair, David Whyte, relinquish the role to make way for Ngaire Rae.
Both Whyte and Wells remain as trustees.
Peter Tynan, chief of the Auckland-based community trust, said in a release: “The Foundation has a sizeable portfolio which is well diversified across different asset classes and across multiple geographies. Frank’s impressive experience as a fund manager dealing in a range of asset classes adds to the variety of expertise we need.”
Foundation North appointed the Australian firm, JANA, as investment consultant in 2020 in place of Cambridge Associates. The community trust also uses MyFiduciary in an investment advisory capacity.
Among other duties, Jasper will lead the Foundation North investment committee as it looks to hit a “net zero carbon emission target by 2050 or before” for the approximately $1.8 billion portfolio.
Meanwhile, the NZX-owned Smartshares has hired Catherine Pollock in a newly established executive level sales role.
Anna Scott, Smartshares chief, said in a release that Pollock had considerable experience in “building and developing long term relationships with direct investors, intermediaries and advisers, which will be invaluable to us achieving the next phase of growth” at the now $11.6 billion funds management and KiwiSaver provider.
Pollock returns to NZ for the job as Smartshares general manager business development and distribution after a 14-year career with the London-based alternative fund operation, 36 South Capital Advisors.
Founded in NZ in 2001 as a ‘tail-risk’ specialist investment house, 36 South moved to London in 2009.
Prior to 36 South, Pollock worked at GLG Partners and Macquarie.