Merger mania or left-foot tango
Rollover is almost as fascinated by superannuation fund mergers as the deputy chair of the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA), Helen Rowell.
Recent fund mergers have come in all shapes and sizes with the result that sometimes Rollover fully understands the rationale behind the transactions while, sometimes, he simply does not.
For instance, Rollover fully understood the rationale behind the rather mammoth merger of Sunsuper and Q Super (geography and demography) while he is still struggling to understand the rationale behind the merger of Media Super and Cbus unless it has something to do with political ideology.
Rollover remembers the origins of Media Super with the old Journalists Union Super Trust (JUST) merging with Print Super. He also remembers the journalist union merging with Actors Equity to become the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance – sometimes known as a rare combination of scribblers and jugglers, but he is not sure how, scale aside, that all fits with a building and construction industry fund like Cbus.
Which brings us to the recent announcement of the impending merger of EISS Super and TWU Super, where at least it can be argued that both are high touch funds with members working in dangerous callings demanding highly specific insurance offerings.
That said, perhaps a fund representing those in the electrical trades might have sat more comfortably with Cbus until you consider the divide between chippies and sparkies and the factional divide between Sydney and Melbourne.
AUTHOR
The Rollover
Rollover is a jaded hack who joined the staff of Super Review nearly two decades’ ago and never managed to summon the energy to leave. Known throughout the superannuation industry as a power-luncher and gossip, Rollover spends his time humouring fund managers, eavesdropping at conferences, dozing through briefings and looking for his next free meal.
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