Why Wall Street is so hot for our $3.5trn super sector
Morgan Stanley chief James Gorman has been tapping his Australian roots to access one of the world’s fastest-growing corners of global capital.
The bank’s Melbourne-born boss is one of a string of executives from Wall Street and beyond doing more business with the largest players in Australia’s $3.5 trillion superannuation sector. The big attraction: inflows of more than $1 billion a week that need to find an investment destination.
Melbourne is the hottest ticket for Wall Street investors as they chase Australia’s superannuation sector.
As the guardians of the country’s retirement savings outgrow their own backyard, they’re partnering with more global asset managers across a range of private market deals. In the past few months, $120 billion pension fund UniSuper invested alongside KKR in a European mobile towers firm, while the $160 billion Aware Super joined investors including Allianz in a UK build-to-rent developer, shortly before buying into a US data centre operator.
“The market is on a growth trajectory,” said Daniel Vanden Boom, managing director at Morgan Stanley Investment Management Australia. The firm works with Australian pensions on co-investing opportunities in areas like infrastructure and property and “our engagement on these topics has never been higher,” he said.
New York-based Gorman and his investment-management chief Dan Simkowitz regularly speak with pension executives in Australia, particularly about growth areas like private markets, said Vanden Boom.
Global tie-ups are a natural evolution for the superannuation funds, which are raking in more money than they know what to do with. As the funds grow, their size allows them to participate in deals alongside private markets asset managers, in
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