Future Fund ready to embrace stock picking again

Jonathan ShapiroSenior reporter

Apr 27, 2023 – 5.00am

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Key Points

The Future Fund currently has $65 billion invested in developed and emerging sharemarkets.
It has commenced a new program to invest in domestic small-cap funds.
The shift into active equities is part of a multi-year process to reposition the portfolio for what the Future Fund has described as a “new investment order.”

The head of the $200 billion Future Fund declared the easy gains fuelled by the era of cheap money is over, and the sovereign wealth giant is prepared to back stock pickers again.

Six years ago, the Future Fund transferred its entire sharemarket exposure to low-cost index tracking strategies, terminating its mandates with fund managers on the belief markets were so warped by central bank policy that it was too hard to justify paying for skill in such constrained conditions.