MELBOURNE, Nov 24 (Reuters) - Australian pension fund Cbus is seeking to buy stakes directly in infrastructure assets to save on fees paid to external managers in a cut-throat environment, a top official said.
Kristian Fok, executive manager investment strategy at Cbus, said such direct stakes also help open opportunities that would otherwise be closed to its external fund managers because their mandates are for specific asset classes, typically equity, debt or property.
CBus, which has A$35 billion ($26 billion) of assets, co-bought this year a toll road in the United States.
Fok cited examples of potential interest in companies that own property, such as hospitals, which may be keen to free up their balance sheets with another source of capital.
"We could, for instance, look at ways we could own those assets and lease them back," Fok told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday.
Many Australian pension funds indirectly own roads, airports and ports through external fund managers. That approach would change now with Cbus looking to buy stakes directly.
Australia's A$2.1 trillion of tax-advantaged retirement savings, is among the world's largest after the U.S., UK, Japan and Canada.
Called "superannuations", they are larger than Australia's economy and set to reach nearly A$10 trillion by 2035, according to Deloitte.
Around 10 percent of Cbus' assets are invested in infrastructure.
($1 = 1.3563 Australian dollars)