Australian Super rushes in as peers take more cautious US stance

The nation’s biggest super fund says it will keep pumping members’ money into the US, allocating half its overseas investments there, even as others flee the fallout of Trump 2.0.

Mikael Limpalaer, the Head of Americas for AustralianSuper, in the company's Lonsdale Street office in central Melbourne. Picture: NewsWire / Andrew Henshaw

AustralianSuper is holding fast to its US growth plans, declaring it will keep pumping funds into the under-pressure market even as others flee over fears Donald Trump’s trade war and erratic decision-making will kill off American exceptionalism.

As its peers take a more cautious stance on investing in the US under Trump 2.0, AustralianSuper, the nation’s largest super fund with $365bn in assets under management, is sending 70 per cent of member inflows overseas and tipping half of this into the American market. The fund has no plans to dial back its commitment to the US, its head of Americas confirmed.

“Our view is the US still has a lot of positives (and) we are taking in the long-term impact of current market events. It still is home to some of the best companies in the world by some measure and we will continue our plans to deploy capital here,” AustralianSuper’s New York-based head of Americas Mikael Limpalaer told The Australian.

“We’re not trying to anticipate the future, we are plotting our course in an uncertain environment. We’re a long-term investor so we have to invest through economic and political cycles (and) we expect about half our international flows will continue to go into the US,” he said.

AustralianSuper’s steadfast belief in the US is at odds with other funds’ assessment of the outlook and comes even as it smarts from a $1.1bn writedown it took on its investment in software firm Pluralsight last year.

John Pearce, UniSuper’s highly regarded chief investment officer, has already questioned his fund’s commitment to America and says he will be reducing its exposure to the region over time.

“Like every other fund in Australia, we have quite a large exposure to US assets, and that’s been a very good place to be investing over the last couple of years, particularly given the US tech story. We’ll be questioning that commitment. Frankly, I think we’ve seen peak investment in US assets,” Mr Pearce said this month.

“Donald Trump prides himself on being a great businessman and good for business. Well, Donald Trump is turning out to be horrible for business. In fact, when I think about American corporate exceptionalism, which I actually did believe in given the American tech scene, the biggest threat to American corporate exceptionalism is indeed Donald Trump,” Mr Pearce warned.

Investor fears over Trump’s erratic commentary and threats — and their potential impact on the economy — moved up a notch on Monday as he launched a fresh attack on Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, sparking concern over the independence of the US central bank under the president.

Aware Super, which manages roughly $300bn, is also now more cautious on the US investing landscape, particularly in the private markets segment. Its head of investment strategy Michael Winchester earlier this month suggested the fund may rethink whether the US is the best market to pump its member money into unlisted investments.

The nation’s second-largest, the $300bn Australian Retirement Trust, has also indicated it is making changes to its investments in light of the recent volatility and economic uncertainty.

“While we keep a close eye on macroeconomic changes in the global environment, and move our portfolios informed by these changes, we have been long-term investors in the US, and we expect this to continue to be the case,” ART general manager for mid-risk assets Michael Weaver told The Australian.

Even before the US tariff announcements, ART was underweight the US, preferring instead the growth prospects in Japan and Europe.

Europe in particular has been a beneficiary of the investor flight out of the US in recent weeks as investors hunt for stability and growth.

Global pension funds have also reportedly gone cold on US private markets under the current administration investors.

Some of the world’s biggest pension funds, including Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), which manages $C699bn in assets, are now said to be reassessing their US private markets exposure due to both geopolitical fears and tax breaks that could be at risk under President Trump.

North America currently represents about 30 per cent of AustralianSuper’s total funds under management but the fund has ambitions for this slice of the pie to be even bigger. It is part way through a multi-year strategy to beef-up its global investment teams and get more deals done on the ground.

It moved Mr Limpalaer, who manages the private markets side of the business, from London to New York late in 2024 as part of its expansion. With 60 of its staff now based in the US headquarters, the fund plans to double this headcount by the end of next year.

In the lead-up to the US administration’s tariff announcements earlier this month, AustralianSuper was bullish on prospects in the US energy space, with Mr Limpalaer telling The Australian this was a segment of the market his team was reviewing for opportunities.

“We’re looking at what we could do more in the energy sector in the US … whether it’s production or transmission,” he said.

Originally published as Australian Super rushes in as peers take more cautious US stance