Australian Retirement Trust (ART) has ruled out two investment options for the fund: investing in bitcoin and launching a self-managed superannuation fund.
Speaking at an adviser roadshow in Sydney, ART chief economist, Brian Parker, was asked if there was a price the fund would consider investing in cryptocurrency bitcoin.
“There is no price where bitcoin is attractive, you punt in bitcoin and we are in the investment business. It is highly speculative and run by dodgy people trading in completely opaque markets, it is highly volatile,” Parker said.
“The idea that it is somehow an alternative to gold is complete bollocks because we don’t know how it behaves in different market cycles.”
However, while being scathing of bitcoin as an asset, he said there was an opportunity in the underlying bitcoin technologies such as blockchain.
Last January, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) issued a warning to trustees of self-managed superannuation funds (SMSFs) who were being targeted to invest in crypto assets.
Meanwhile, head of advice and guidance, Anne Fuchs, said the fund would also be unlikely to launch a self-managed superannuation fund like Hostplus.
Hostplus had offered its Hostplus Self-Managed Invest since June 2019 and offered SMSF investors pre-mixed or sector-specific investment options and access to assets such as private equity and infrastructure.
Fuchs said: “Qsuper had a self-directed investment product in the past that did have some use but we think about making decisions which are in the members’ best financial interests and we have to get a two-year payback when we spend members’ money.
“When we think about the opportunities now for our 2.2 million members, the demand is in creating a best-of-breed retirement income product and how we can extend lifetime income products, they would be the obvious place to start.
“For us from a business case, it would become hard to get that two-year payback [from an SMSF]. When you’re spending members’ money in a constrained environment, it would be a challenge.”
Last week, the fund announced it had made a series of investment team changes including the promotion of Andrew Fisher to head of investment strategy as Damian Lillicrap departs and the appointment of Nicole Bradford as head of sustainable investment.
