Former ANZ head of Australasian listed property, Craig Tyson, has been hired to run a newly established real estate investment trust (REIT) portfolio for the roughly $50 billion Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) fund.
Tyson, who left ANZ in June after an almost two-decade career at the bank-owned fund manager, will look after a pure Australian REITs allocation for the ACC in a rare portfolio addition for the government-owned investment vehicle.
An ACC spokesperson said the interest-rate-sensitive listed property sector was a “good fit” for the fund, which has to match assets against the country’s long-term accident insurance outstanding claims liability (OCL).
The ACC fund has a large exposure to local bonds where changing yields exert a major influence on the OCL over time: REIT returns are similarly impacted by bond yields, the spokesperson said.
But while the ACC has exposure to REITs across other equity portfolios, Tyson will focus on Australia-only listed property stocks – a universe of some 40-plus entities spanning a wider range of sectors than NZ counterparts.
“We already have a dedicated NZ REIT portfolio and hold REITs in our other broad based NZ portfolios,” the spokesperson said.
However, the fund declined to reveal the expected size of the new Australian REITs exposure nor where the allocation would come from.
According to the 2023 ACC annual report, the fund allocates to 13 asset classes including four ‘overlay’ strategies: just under half of fund is invested in NZ bonds – split almost equally between inflation-linked and nominal – with global equity ($12.1 billion) the next-largest holding.
The ACC fund manages all of its NZ listed equities and most Australian shares in-house, reporting a respective $3.6 billion and $1.1 billion in those asset classes as at the end of June last year.
Recruiting for the new role earlier this year, the ACC fund said the Australian REIT manager would also be “expected to contribute positively to the success of ACC’s other investment portfolios, by working cooperatively with other members of the Investment team”.
Tyson reports to ACC head of equities, Blair Cooper.