Martin Currie wins $145m GEM mandate

Australian pension fund HostPlus has awarded Martin Currie a $145 million global emerging markets equity mandate.

One of Australia's largest institutional investors, HostPlus is the fourth pension fund from the country to have chosen Martin Currie to run an investment mandate.

Over the last six months Australian pension funds Hesta, VicSuper and Energy Super have also awarded mandates to the Edinburgh-based group.

The latest mandate from HostPlus, Australia's $11.5 billion national fund for the hospitality and tourism sectors, will be managed by Kim Catechis, Martin Currie's head of emerging markets, and fund manager Andrew Ness as part of its flagship global emerging markets (GEMs) strategy.

The fund employs a multi-cap, bottom-up strategy with flexibility for the managers to invest in companies where they believe the long-term growth prospects are not yet reflected in their stock price.

Commenting on the appointment, Kimon Kouryialas, Martin Currie's head of pan Asia sales & client services, said:

'Our GEMs team has significant experience in managing emerging-market portfolios. The managers have the flexibility to diverge from the benchmark and identify those smaller and mid-cap companies with untapped growth potential'