The Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) has released an updated list of its external fund managers revealing a mostly stable set of suppliers.
According to the ACC list obtained under an Official Information Act (OIA) request, the 11 third-party fund managers more-or-less match the ACC roster as reported in 2016.
However, over the last three years the $40 billion plus ACC fund has dispatched one Australian equities manager – resource specialist Independent Asset Management – while appointing two new global fixed income firms: Elementum Advisors and Robeco.
The US-based Elementum, which also has a mandate with the NZ Superannuation Fund, specialises in catastrophe bonds and other insurance-based investments. Robeco, a Dutch firm with offerings in multiple asset classes, focuses on “sustainability investing, quantitative techniques and constant innovation”, according to its website.
The ACC fund, headed by chief investment officer Nicholas Bagnall, invests almost $12 billion in offshore assets, most of which is outsourced to external managers. But the fund does manage a significant portion of global and Australian equities in-house.
During the 12 months to June 30 the ACC fund reported bumper nominal returns of $3.5 billion – albeit that, with the exception of global bonds, most asset class exposures underperformed their respective benchmarks. Overall, the ACC fund returned 13.1 per cent for the annual period against its composite benchmark of 13.8 per cent.
The full list of ACC third-party equities managers includes: Alliance Bernstein; Arrowstreet; Harding Loevner; Intermede Investment Partners; Marathon Asset Management; Orbis Investment Management; Paradice Investment Management; and, Wells Capital.
As reported above, the global fixed income stable covers PIMCO, Elementum and Robeco.
“Since September 2018 ACC’s Investment team have not removed, replaced or added any external asset managers,” the OIA release says.
The ACC fund also allocates to a number of private equity and venture capital managers that in 2016 included: Direct Capital; Pencarrow; Allegro; Quadrant; RMB Partners; Waterman; Pioneer; Maui Capital; iGlobe; Archer; Wolseley; and Willis Bond.
ACC has close to 60 employees in the fund management unit including 30 or so investment professionals.