Australia's Future Fund recruits Alicia Gregory as PE head

Gregory has spent the last 14 years working within MLC’s private equity program, including a three-year stint in London as head of European PE.

She will assume responsibility for the global PE portfolio and relationships with external partners at Future Fund. Based in Sydney, Gregory will report to Wendy Norris, the deputy CIO covering private markets. Future Fund plans to recruit additional senior staff to its private equity team, according to a statement.

The appointment comes three months after the sovereign wealth fund’s previous PE head, Steve Byrom, departed to launch an advisory firm that targets global institutional investors looking to build exposure to the asset class. Byrom, who had been with Future Fund since 2007, was joined by two other senior members of the organization’s PE team, David Simons and Jasmina Osmanovic. A third, Cameron Sinclair, moved to Funds SA in January as private equity and infrastructure head.

Future Fund had A$147 billion ($103 billion) in total assets as of December 2018, including A$23.4 billion in private equity. The percentage allocation to the asset class increased from 12.1% to 15.8% over the previous 12 months. The organization credits carefully cultivated private markets exposure with helping it achieve an annualized return of 9.7% over the last 10 years, beating the 6.6% benchmark.

Future Fund has been especially active in venture capital and growth investment, as well as co-investment. Of the A$4.3 billion in private equity capital called over the 12 months to June 2018, 36% was for VC and growth equity, 27% for co-investments, and 37% for buyouts. Meanwhile, VC and growth equity featured prominently in distributions, accounting for 42% of the A$2.6 billion received, compared to 6% for co-investment and 37% from buyouts.

The 10-year return on the private equity program as of June 2018 is said to be 17.3%.

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