Investment case studies: Seeking returns for members through diversity
07 December 2022
8
min read
When it comes to your super, it’s most likely the longest-term investment you will ever have.
At Australian Retirement Trust, our investment approach with your super money is designed to ultimately help you to live your best retirement.1
Australian Retirement Trust is the fund created through the merger of QSuper and Sunsuper to become one of Australia’s largest super funds taking care of over $200 billion in retirement savings for more than two million members.
Our experienced investment team focusses on delivering strong long-term investment returns. The team is committed to leveraging our size and scale, seeking out investments to grow your superannuation savings, and helping to maximise your retirement income.
We invest your money in a broad range of options, including listed shares and bonds, and property and infrastructure, both in Australia and around the world.
Investing your super: Learn more about how your super investments work here.
How we cast a wide net with investments
We also invest in unlisted assets such as airports, toll roads, and logistics assets, while other investments include pharmaceutical companies, data storage firms, and providing financing for real estate development.
Here’s a closer look at some of our more recent investments in unlisted assets on your behalf:
In May 2022, Australian Retirement Trust acquired an interest in Pharmathen, a leading European contract development and manufacturing organisation (CDMO) specialising in advanced drug delivery technologies for complex generic pharmaceutical products.
Founded in 1969 in Greece and now headquartered in the Netherlands, Pharmathen produces generic formulations of complex, high-value drugs and also manufactures and supplies the finished products to retailers.
It specialises in taking simple formulations to market and in developing complex formulations like long-acting injectables and preservative-free ophthalmic medicines.
The company employs 1,100 people, of whom 220 are research and development specialists, and has more than 200 clients in over 80 countries. Since 2015, Pharmathen has focussed on growing and diversifying its blue-chip customer base while reducing its costs.
Our investment team believes Pharmathen represents value for members as it grows both its market presence and market share, including through targeted acquisitions.
In January 2022, Australian Retirement Trust acquired a stake in Precisely, a data integrity technology provider to companies in many industries globally.
Headquartered in Burlington, Massachusetts, Precisely’s 14 offices across nine countries employ 2,200 staff dedicated to serving 12,000 customers, including 98 of the Fortune 100 companies.
Precisely provides technology solutions that help companies move their data into the cloud and analyse it using major technology partners such as Amazon and Azure. Precisely’s growth is fueled by a combination of organic customer growth and inorganic growth through acquisitions, which have accelerated since 2017.
The company has a strong focus on business development and is adding to its suite of software solutions and cross-selling to existing customers.
The explosion in volume and complexity of data, plus adoption of cloud storage, has put Precisely in a great position to continue growing through its software product and service offerings, as well as through partnerships and acquisitions.
Through a pre-merger (June 2021) investment, QSuper provided financing for an Australian real estate developer to acquire Project Mews, an 80-hectare parcel of residential land located within the South West Sydney Growth Area, two kilometres east of the Oran Park commercial and residential centre and 15 kilometres south of the future Western Sydney Airport.
The project intends to split the land into three “super lots” that will form a community with residential lots, environmental lots, townhouses, and a shopping centre.
The land is well positioned to benefit from the jobs and growth associated with the Western Sydney Airport, now under construction and due to open in 2026, and infrastructure commitment from both the News South Wales and Australian governments. Land has been in tight supply in this area, where the population is projected to grow by nearly 6% annually. This investment has already yielded a return of over 20% on members’ money.1
1. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance. Each of our investment options has a different objective, risk profile, and asset allocation. Visit our investment options section for more detailed information.