Super investment shifts to India
India is set to benefit from a shift in Australian superannuation fund attitudes to investing in Asia, according to research conducted by the University of New South Wales's Australian School of Business.
The study of 20 superannuation funds and similar institutions revealed that investment in India is expected to increase significantly as respondents indicated they are set to move into country-specific mandates from 'Asia as a whole' mandates, associate professor John R Evans said.
Respondents stated they would increase their investment in India to 28 per cent of their total Asian (non-Japan) investment, up from a previous 15 per cent, while allocation to mainland China would remain steady at 55 per cent of total allocation.
The super funds and institutions had aggregate assets of about $207 billion.
"The majority of participants regard Asian investments as being part of their overall equity allocation," Evans said.
"The current allocation to Asian investments is about 2.5 per cent of total assets, but institutions plan to increase their allocation marginally to 2.8 per cent.
"Institutions expect nominal return from Asian investments of almost 9 per cent per annum, and almost 2.5 per cent per annum better than the more developed market returns."
He stated obstacles to investing in Asia include corporate governance, legal enforceability and contractual issues.
Recommended for you
The FSCP has announced its latest verdict, suspending an adviser’s registration for failing to comply with his obligations when providing advice to three clients.
Having sold Madison to Infocus earlier this year, Clime has now set up a new financial advice licensee with eight advisers.
With licensees such as Insignia looking to AI for advice efficiencies, they are being urged to write clear AI policies as soon as possible to prevent a “Wild West” of providers being used by their practices.
Iress has revealed the number of clients per adviser that top advice firms serve, as well as how many client meetings they conduct each week.