AustralianSuper fund appoints European investment chief

Pensions provider AustralianSuper on Tuesday said it had appointed Damian Moloney as its European head of investments as the fund looked to expand its offshore investment opportunities.

Moloney will move to London next year to oversee the development of AustralianSuper’s offshore investments platform.

Chief investment officer Mark Delaney said with nearly half of AustralianSuper’s member assets now invested overseas it was important the company retained a local presence in markets where it was investing.

Moloney is currently chief executive at Frontier Advisors and will start at AustralianSuper in April.

“With a large amount of capital deployed in markets and assets in Europe and the USA it is vital that AustralianSuper has a local presence so that we can ensure we are getting the best possible outcomes for members,” he said.

AustralianSuper, the country's largest pension fund with AUD $130bn (£71bn) under management, said it was on track to manage 50% of member assets internally within five years in an effort to deliver savings to scheme members through lower costs.

The fund manages retirement savings on behalf of more than 2.2m members from around 270,000 businesses, as at 31 December 2017.