NEST finds new lease of life

Australia’s superfund giants have arrived in Europe with fresh reinforcements, as UK pension scheme National Employment Savings Trust (NEST) joined a heavyweight delegation of Australian supers hunting private markets deals across the continent. The trip comes as the chair of IFM Investors - the asset manager owned 90% by Australian pension schemes and 10% by NEST - declared that conditions are now right for a “stronger, more deliberate” investment partnership between Australian retirement capital and the UK economy. Backed by a projected A$660 billion (EUR401.7 billion) earmarked for European private markets over the next decade, the group, including AustralianSuper, CBUS, Aware Super, Australian Retirement Trust, HESTA and Rest, is targeting infrastructure, energy transition and digital assets as competition for scale assets intensifies globally. Britain once spent years admiring Australia’s pension model from afar; now Australian supers are arriving with British capital in tow, turning pension diplomacy into a potential cross-border private markets buying spree.