AustralianSuper CEO Paul Schroder was the guest speaker at a Reuters NEXT Newsmaker last week, detailing the fund's ambitious international growth plans, the outlook for global inflation and the importance of environmental, social and governance (ESG) in investment.
In the 45-minute conversation with Reuters Breakingviews Editor Antony Currie, Schroder described AustralianSuper as "too big for Australia" and detailed plans to double the fund's assets to A$500 billion ($350 billion) in the next five years and again to A$1 trillion ($700 billion) within a decade.
Leading the fund through its continued growth, Schroder pointed to the necessity for evolution, including expanding overseas, where it already generates more than half its new inflows. London, New York and Beijing are all targeted growth centres. "As you grow, you must change the model, and that's what we've been doing," he said.
Schroder warned of "pretty tough times ahead", with consumers and businesses likely to struggle as policymakers around the world seek to rein in surging inflation: "Inflation is the main, and could be the only, game and the policy settings that respond to it."
Schroder also took questions from the virtual audience during the Newsmaker event, stressing AustralianSuper's commitment to ESG, saying the fund was pushing companies on the credibility of their net zero, strategic and succession plans.
The virtual Reuters NEXT Newsmaker session was made available to Reuters subscribers, and was covered by Reuters, Bloomberg, the West Australian, CityWire Australia and AsianInvestor, amongst others. You can view an on-demand replay of the event here.
Media contact: jj.minder @ tr.com
