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Chief Executive Ian Silk, whose fund manages A$120 billion ($95
billion), said government policy on energy right now was a
"dog's breakfast" which was deterring investment.
In 2016, AustralianSuper invested A$2.5 billion as part of a
consortium bid to buy electricity network Ausgrid for a total of
A$16 billion.
It was the fund's largest single direct investment, and the fund
has previously expressed interest in further infrastructure
purchases.
Silk, speaking at a Reuters Newsmaker event in Sydney, said
infrastructure assets in general in Australia were highly priced
and the fund needs to be discriminating about what to invest in.
On asset allocation, Silk said the fund had about 8 to 9 percent
in cash and was attracting net cash inflows of around A$500
million a month.
Silk said the fund had been underweight in bonds, at only around
3 percent of assets, but this choice had benefited members so
far.
Around a quarter of AustralianSuper's balanced fund is invested
in the local share market and a third in international equities,
according to the fund's website.
About 20 percent of the fund is held in real estate and
infrastructure, with the balance in fixed income and credit,
cash, private equity and alternative products.
It returned 12.44 percent, after taxes and fees, to investors
for the year ended June 30 - much higher than the 4.54 percent
in the previous year but in line with recent average returns.
Australia's A$2.1 trillion pool of tax-advantaged retirement
savings, known locally as "superannuation" or "super" funds is
larger than the country's gross domestic product and among the
world's largest pension-fund pools after the United States, UK,
Japan and Canada.
(Reporting by Jane Wardell; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)
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