Australia’s Rest looks to ‘have cake and eat it too’

Rest, a major Australian pension fund, is actively increasing its exposure to private markets with a dual emphasis on private equity and infrastructure investments. Marina Pasika, recently appointed as the fund's head of private markets, outlined this strategic shift in an interview with Private Equity International, signaling the fund's commitment to broadening its alternative asset base.

The fund's approach reflects a deliberate strategy to balance multiple private markets opportunities rather than concentrate capital in a single investment category. This diversification strategy—described internally as an effort to "have cake and eat it too"—suggests Rest is seeking to capture upside potential across different private markets segments while managing concentration risk inherent to alternative investments.

The expansion into private equity and infrastructure aligns with institutional investor trends favoring alternative assets as portfolio diversifiers and return enhancers. For Australian pension funds managing significant pools of capital, private markets allocation has become increasingly important as a mechanism to achieve long-term return objectives amid persistently low public market yields and rising redemption pressures.

The specific allocation targets and deployment timeline were not detailed in available reporting, though Pasika's appointment itself signals Rest's seriousness about scaling its private markets operations and building institutional expertise in this asset class.