Maple-Brown Abbott snares Future Fund small-cap mandate
Sydney money manager Maple-Brown Abbott has been revealed as the $206 billion Future Fund’s choice to manage its coveted active Australian small-cap investment strategy.
The sovereign wealth fund in April told The Australian Financial Review’s Alpha Live summit that after six years of opting to invest in Australian stocks via passive and smart beta strategies, it would once again turn to active managers.
Future Fund chief executive Raphael Arndt revealed the return to active management in April this year. Peter Rae
An update to the Future Fund’s investment manager roster confirmed the addition of Maple-Brown Abbott to its Australian equities roster. Meanwhile, Swedish firm EQT Partners has been added to it infrastructure roster.
The Future Fund’s Year in Review document also referenced its new partnership with Maple-Brown Abbott, which was set up over 40 years ago and manages $9 billion across Australian, global and infrastructure assets.
The firm was founded by legendary investors Robert Maple-Brown and Chris Abbott in 1984, with just $35 million.
The Future Fund said in the report Friday that its research and analysis had identified “persistent” opportunity to outperform the market by investing in Australian small caps.
“Relative to other segments of the domestic equity market, Australian small-company stocks have a lower level of analyst coverage, higher dispersion in analyst forecasts and greater forecasting error.”
It said the small-cap index was also more diverse which helped active managers to capitalise on their research to beat the market, and that current economic conditions meant there would be more divergent outcomes for companies, playing into the hands of active stock pickers.
“By adopting an active
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