M&G Investments, part of the London-headquartered M&GPrudential, has established a ground presence in Australia after opening offices in Sydney and Melbourne.
The firm has appointed Chris Andrews as head of business development, Australia, to lead the Melbourne office and James MacKinnon as head of Australia, real estate, to lead the Sydney office.
“We are seeing a growing demand from superannuation funds to diversify their portfolios through increasing allocations to international markets,” said William Nicoll, head of institutional fixed income at M&G.
“Our existing Australian client base has traditionally sought our international public credit expertise, and now we’re seeing significant interest in European private debt and infrastructure investments, too.
“These appointments enable us to deepen our relationships with Australian institutional investors, enhance our client service and to partner with them on international opportunities.”
M&G’s real estate business acquired its first Australian property in Sydney in 2004, while M&G established its first Australian client relationship in 2010.
Andrews was most recently based in Singapore as head of client relationships and marketing at M&G Real Estate.
He brings 30 years’ experience in the fund management industry to the role and will focus on investment capabilities for institutional clients in Australia.
MacKinnon, who joined M&G Real Estate in Singapore in 2012 as head of asset management (Asia Pacific), will report to M&G Real Estate, Asia CEO and CIO Ng Chiang Ling.
The new real estate head has more than three decades of experience in Australia and Asia Pacific and has previously held senior asset management positions with AIG Global Real Estate (Asia) and Macquarie Goodman.
M&G has more than A$3bn of assets under management in Australia.