POWERED BY MOMENTUM MEDIA
Keeping pace with M&A activity
With J.P. Morgan forecasting superannuation funds could fall to less than 75, Super Review has collated the latest M&A activity in the space.
Last week, the asset manager said it believed the total number of super funds could fall to less than 75 by 2025 as merger activity was expected to accelerate going forward.
The biggest merger in the last six months had been between QSuper and Sunsuper, now known as Australian Retirement Trust, which was only completed last month and created a fund with $230 billion in assets under management.
It had since been announced Australian Retirement Trust would also merge with the $8 billion Australia Post Superannuation Scheme, a merger that had been previously been planned with Sunsuper.
Hospitality-focused super fund Hostplus was particularly active in the merger space; having completed a merger with Intrust Super in November 2021, was in the process of merging with Statewide Super and signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Maritime Super.
Australian Super also completed a merger with Club Plus Super while Aware Super completed one with the Victorian Independent Schools Superannuation Fund (VISSF), both taking place in December.
Australian Super had also signed a heads of agreement with LUCRF Super which was expected to be finalised towards the end of the financial year.
Looking at future mergers, EISS Super signed an MoU with Cbus after an initial merger with TWU Super fell apart in October after ‘extensive due diligence’ and UniSuper signed an MoU with Australian Catholic Superannuation.
AUTHOR
Laura Dew
Laura Dew is editor at Super Review. Prior to joining SR, she spent five years working at Investment Week in the UK covering asset and wealth management.
Recommended for you
In its pre-election policy document, the FSC highlighted 15 priority reforms, with superannuation featuring prominently, urging both major parties to avoid changing super taxes without a comprehensive tax review.
The Grattan Institute has labelled the Australian super system as “too complicated” and has proposed a three-pronged reform strategy to simplify superannuation in retirement.
Super funds delivered a strong 2024 result, with the median growth fund returning 11.4 per cent, driven by strong international sharemarket performance, new data has shown.
Australian Ethical has seen FUM growth of 27 per cent in the financial year to date.
TOP PERFORMING FUNDS
ACS FIXED INT - AUSTRALIA/GLOBAL BOND
Fund name
3y(%)pa
1
Spire Oaktree Opportunities XI Second Close
36.43 3 y p.a(%)
2
Spire Oaktree Opportunities XI First Close USD
35.08 3 y p.a(%)
3
DomaCom Lot 21 Chellaston Road Munno Para West SA 5115 Australia
31.72 3 y p.a(%)
4
Fidante Credit Suisse Global Private Equity
29.60 3 y p.a(%)
5
Global X GlobalX FANG+ ETF
27.64 3 y p.a(%)
