SYDNEY, Aug 25 Reuters Australia39;s secondlargest pension fund plans to open its first overseas office by mid2024, its chief investment officer said on Friday, the latest retirement manager to look overseas as the country39;s pension sector outgrows the home market.

The move will put Australian Retirement Trust ART, which has A240 billion 154 billion in assets, closer to its private equity and debt managers and help clinch more coinvestment deals, where private managers offer investors direct stakes, Chief Investment Officer Ian Patrick told Reuters on Friday.

There39;s no doubt if you are talking to them regularly in their time zone and their market you39;re more inclined to get the coinvestment flow, Patrick said.

The fund39;s biggest private equity mandates are with HarbourVest, Neuberger Berman and Stepstone Group, according to public filings.

The team will almost certainly be based in London and only be small because ART relies mostly on external managers, Patrick said, adding the office would likely open between now and mid2024.

We want a little bit of presence in offshore markets but we don39;t want to build 100 people, we will do it slowly and surely, Patrick said.

A decision on a second overseas office would be made 12 to 24 months after the first opens.

Australia39;s A2.4 trillion professional pension sector is increasingly looking to overseas markets to deploy the funds generated by a system which sets aside 11 of a worker39;s paypacket for…