(Bloomberg) -- Australia’s sovereign wealth fund’s giant mandate with hedge fund firm Man Group Plc fell by about A$1.5 billion ($1 billion) in the first half of this year, according to latest disclosures of its external managers.
Man Group remains by far the top manager of the A$225 billion Future Fund’s sprawling portfolio of unlisted assets, overseeing A$6.46 billion of hedge fund investments at the end of June. That dropped from A$7.93 billion at the end of 2023, according to filings uploaded to the fund’s website last week.
Spokespeople for the Future Fund and Man Group declined to comment.
In an update last month, Future Fund Chief Executive Officer Raphael Arndt said the fund made A$50 billion of changes to its overall portfolio in the past year, without naming investments. The fund was now more robust to the changing rates environment and geopolitical risks, he said.
Arndt also highlighted the strong performance of the firm’s hedge fund investments, which comprise around 15% of overall assets.
Another big move in Future Fund disclosures over the first half was Boston-based Wellington Management, whose allocation in the hedge fund portfolio jumped by about A$1.2 billion to A$3 billion.
The filings highlight the chunky business up for grabs from one of the region’s largest investors in private markets, which make up more than 40% of its assets. While those investments helped drive a 9.1% annual return through June, Australian regulators are tightening scrutiny of the increasing amount of unlisted assets held by the country’s biggest investors.
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London-based Man Group is the world’s largest publicly-listed hedge fund firm, managing more than $178 billion. It reported $1.6 billion of outflows in the first three months of this year, the most in any quarter in almost four years, amid widespread industry withdrawals. The outflows were then reversed in the following months.
Among the Future Fund’s other external managers, Horsley Bridge Partners and New Enterprise Associates have the largest unlisted equity allocations, while Brookfield Asset Management has the top unlisted property mandate.
The Future Fund must disclose its investments holdings every six months, after the government introduced rules that brought reporting in line with the nation’s A$3.9 trillion pension industry.
--With assistance from Richard Henderson.
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