Local Government Super has awarded a $780 million active Australian equities mandate to State Street Global Advisers (SSgA).
LGS chief investment officer Craig Turnbull said its asset consultant JANA had identified an opportunity to increase the targeted return through taking on more active risk.
"Based on the success of our long-term relationship with SSgA we are happy to expand the partnership to incorporate active Australian equities," he said.
"SSgA's portfolio is customised to conform with our environmental, social and governance investment principles and will exclude stocks from industries such as uranium mining, gambling, armaments and tobacco."
SSgA head of active Australian equities Olivia Engel said it had worked with LGS over a number of years across asset classes.
"The solution for LGS represents the growing client demand for smarter equity mandate design, including more explicit budgeting of risk and return and addressing the prevalence of portfolio redundancy in traditional equity portfolios," she said.
The fund awarded $90 million to Hermes last year to provide an ESG overlay to its international equities portfolio.
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Specific valuation decisions made by the $88 billion fund at the beginning of the pandemic were “not adequate for the deteriorating market conditions”, according to the prudential regulator.