Orbis goes local to attract super funds

Several Australian superannuation funds are set to invest in Bermuda-based Orbis Investment Management’s new locally-based wholesale international equities fund, which was opened for investments today.

The Australian-based Orbis Global Equity fund is a mirror of the existing Bermuda-based fund of the same name which gained a strong foothold in the local superannuation market last August by attracting super funds HostPlus, the Public Sector Super Scheme, Commonwealth Super Scheme, Emergency Services Super and Standards Australia.

Although the contrarian value manager’s Australian based distribution outfit Orbis Investment Advisory could not name the super funds interested in the new locally-based offering, they suggested that at least a couple of large Australian super funds would invest either today or within a week.

Orbis director Jean Pretorius said a unique attraction of the fund was that it contained a refundable reserve fee, which is paid back to investors to offset management fees if the fund underperforms.

Pretorius said Orbis, like many international fund managers, was attracted to the Australian market because of its superannuation system.

“In our case it was a little opportunistic as well because both myself and Mark Herdman who’s the managing director really wanted live in Australia,” he said.

Pretorius said there would be no cap on the fund’s intake.

“Currently as a group [Orbis Investment Management] have about A$10 billion under management, so we’re really quite a long way from capacity in that sense.”

Equity Trustees will act as the trustee of Orbis’ Australian fund.