The $210 million Community Trust of Southland (CTOS) has invested in a raft of new managers while trimming back exposure to some incumbents.
John Prendergast, CTOS chief, said the yet-to-be-completed manager changes followed a review of the community trust’s investments by newly-appointed asset consultant, Aon Hewitt.
Prendergast said as well as adding further diversification, the manager changes reflected CTOS’ new strategic asset allocation (SAA) guidelines that upped exposure to growth assets from 60 per cent to 75 per cent.
He said the SAA change was in line with the fund’ s position as a “long-term perpetual investor”.
Mint Asset Management has been the biggest winner from the CTOS realignment, picking up a $20 million Australasian equities mandate. The win lifts Mint’s total funds under management to $670 million.
Former Westpac in-house local equities team, Salt Funds Management, also scored a tidy $10 million allocation to its Long/Short fund. The $100 million plus Salt Long/Short product, which has about 70 per cent invested in the Australian market, has returned almost 22 per cent since inception just over a year ago, the latest Aon Hewitt figures show.
The manager reshuffle has seen Elevation Capital lose the Australasian shares component (reported at about $25 million as at March 31 last year) of the diversified portfolio it ran for CTOS. However, Prendergast said Elevation would continue to manage a block of overseas equities ($73 million as at last March) for CTOS.
“We haven’t removed any managers, we’ve just trimmed back some holdings,” he said.
As well as the Australasian equity additions, CTOS has awarded $5 million apiece to local private equity firm, Waterman Capital, and the Morrison & Co Public Infrastructure Partnership 2 (PIP 2) fund.
“We’re also considering global infrastructure and global property investments,” Prendergast said.
The community trust also has investments with Nikko, PIMCO, Pioneer Capital and Direct Capital, according to the March 2015 financial statements.
CTOS hired Aon as investment consultant in March this year replacing long-time incumbent, the Michael Chamberlain-led firm MCA.