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From Kirsten Bischoff, Opalesque New York:

For fund managers outside Australia, the country holds a significant and largely untapped pool of potential assets. In the Opalesque Roundtable (Australia), we learn a minimum of 9% of each citizen’s salary is required to be invested into a registered superannuation (pension) fund, a requirement that continues to fuel the $1.2tln pension asset base that is currently the world’s fifth largest, and rapidly increasing.

“From our perspective, we evaluate Aussie hedge funds against global funds,” says Bruce Tomlinson, portfolio manager at $15bn Sunsuper pension fund (which invests 30% of its assets into alternatives). While the fund evaluates local funds via its own due diligence teams, for offshore funds Sunsuper, like many of the other superannuation funds tends to use consultants for investment referrals.

Additionally, the Australian Parliament is considering legislation that will ease tax penalties (Foreign Investment Fund –FIF rules) on Australian investors who invest into foreign funds. Larry Simon, principal and cofounder of regulatory and compliance consultancy The Lazorne Group explained during the Roundtable that presently Australian investors pay tax on unrealized gains for investments into foreign hedge funds.

“The government has stated that they would like Australians not to be disadvantaged by investing in offshore v......................

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