Australian pension fund with $157 billion looking to buy amid global market turmoil

SYDNEY – Aware Super, one of Australia’s largest pension funds, is already preparing to buy cheaper stocks and capitalise on the turmoil that’s wiping trillions of dollars from global equities.

“We will be looking for opportunities to buy into this weakness,” head of investment strategy Michael Winchester said in an interview on April 7. While the A$194 billion (S$157 billion) fund would “like to see a few more days go by”, it plans “to be on the front foot to add to risk during periods of volatility”.

Mr Winchester helms a team of 22, part of the superannuation fund’s broader investment staff of 150 people based in Australia and Britain. Aware is well placed with “plenty of liquidity”, he said, fuelled by inflows from the regular contributions of more than a million Australian workers.

“Having that liquidity means that we can be a strong hand when others potentially aren’t able to,” said Mr Winchester. “All of our teams will be on the lookout for opportunistic buys for our members.” 

Australians have nervously been monitoring the fallout from

US President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs

on global markets, and the subsequent stock rout’s impact on their retirement savings. Many funds in the A$4.2 trillion pension industry have more than half of their default investment portfolios invested in international and domestic stocks. 

A flight from global equities accelerated on April 7 and investors piled into haven assets. US stocks last week saw its worst two-day plunge since March 2020 in a sell-off that slashed over US$6.5 trillion (S$8.8 trillion) in value, while Australia’s benchmark stock index tumbled as much as 6.4 per cent on April 7, its largest drop since 2020. 

Rather than trying to pinpoint sectors to load up on, Mr Winchester said the fund would be looking at broad market indexes. He believes that deals may also emerge in the private credit space, though not immediately. 

“It’ll take a little while for the economic impact of the tariffs and market shock to filter through into more attractive opportunities on the unlisted side,” he said. 

Still, the fund is being more discerning about US unlisted assets in the current environment. 

“I think we definitely need to have a think about whether the US is the right destination on that unlisted asset side,” he said, declining to highlight any sectors. BLOOMBERG