While our commitment to invest in the best interests of our members remains unchanged, as we’ve grown from just over $20 billion in funds under management a decade ago, to over $100 billion1, our investment approach and strategy has also evolved.
From being a pioneer through our wholly owned unlisted property investor and developer, Cbus Property2, to our expansion into unlisted infrastructure both in Australia and offshore, over the past 40 years we’ve leveraged our experience in the built environment and in unlisted assets to generate strong long-term outcomes for our members3.
In recent years, we also have grown the number of investments managed internally by our investment team, and we continue to look at ways to manage more of our members' money inhouse, especially in areas like shares, infrastructure and debt.
How does this benefit members?
In keeping with our focus on delivering strong long-term returns for our members, since we embarked on our internalisation strategy, we have also realised over $1 billion in investment fee and cost savings4.
We also believe that having strong internal investment capabilities enables us to make more informed investment decisions across our portfolio. We currently manage strategies across a range of asset classes such as Australian, global and emerging market shares, infrastructure, debt and cash.
Did you know?
Approximately 34%⁵ of our investments are managed internally, and we expect this to grow to around 50% by 2028.
Internal versus external investments
We invest with a range of internal and external investment managers that meet our selection criteria and fit within our investment strategy, such as Cbus Property. Simply put, you can think of the difference between an internal and external manager as:
Internal
Investments where our investment team has the day-to-day responsibility for managing these assets.
External
Typically provide specialist investment services to the Fund and are responsible for a set amount of our assets, for a percentage-based fee. They are managed in accordance with strict rules agreed to by us.
1As at 31 December 2024.
2Cbus Property Pty Ltd is a wholly-owned entity of Cbus Super and is responsible for the development and management of a portfolio of Cbus Super’s property investments.
3Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance.
4The cumulative savings are estimated for each financial year from FY18 to FY24 and summed. The approach employed is to multiply the annual average size of the Growth option by the reduction in investment fees for each year relative to FY17.
5 As at 30 June 2024. Approximately 34% of our assets in-house, including hybrid strategies.