Cuffe charity fund tilts to growth assets
Monday, 24 May 2010 12:40pm
Chris Cuffe has allocated money from the Third Link Growth fund to Perennial Investment Partners and Colonial First State Global Asset Management targeting A-REITs, soft commodities and global credit.
Cuffe said the fund is aggressively positioned with 85 per cent invested in growth assets and the rest in cash and fixed interest. The fund's default asset allocation is 70 per cent in growth and 30 per cent in defensive assets.
He said he had allocated funds to Perennial to be invested in the Australian real estate investment trust (A-REIT) market. Stephen Hayes, managing director and portfolio manager at Perennial Real Estate Investments, manages the funds.
In addition, Cuffe said he allocated money to the newly created Colonial First State Soft Commodities fund.
"The world's population is increasing, therefore, there's greater pressure on the food chain especially given the impact of biofuels," he said.
The Third Link Growth fund previously had investments in global credit but Cuffe sold the position just before Christmas last year.
However, he believes the market has overreacted with the European debt issues and has re-invested money back into the asset class through Colonial First State Global Asset Management.
The fund is designed to provide regular income to Social Ventures Australia (SVA), a firm that supports 20 charities across a number of areas including youth and the environment.
It has attracted more than $40 million in funds under management since its launch in April 2008. Cuffe said he writes a $45,000 cheque to SVA at this stage.
He hopes to provide a regular income stream of around $1.5 million per year once the fund reaches $150 million.
Prior to the Third Link Growth fund, Cuffe was chief executive at Colonial First State and later was appointed chief executive of Challenger Wealth Management.
Michael Hobbs
