POWERED BY MOMENTUM MEDIA
NAB questions growing dominance of super funds
The growing number of assets held by superannuation funds is concerning NAB which has questioned if they will hold undue influence over firms as large shareholders in the future.
Speaking in the House of Representatives standing committee on economics, NAB chief executive Ross McEwan said as super funds assets grew, they could end up holding larger shareholdings in firms.
Funds such as Australian Super and UniSuper, both named by McEwan, had $172 billion and $100 billion.
“There is a lot of money coming into the ASX [Australian Securities Exchange] from super funds and they will be taking a large portion of ownership of banks in the future. That is not a concern for us yet as they haven’t interfered yet but they will have their own views,” he said.
“Super funds work with asset managers who manage the money for them and have feeder funds run by someone else so we do speak to their asset manager and to the super funds’ chief investment officer but so far that has been about our performance rather than any influence on policy.”
Committee member, Jason Falinski, highlighted industry super funds already held 27.3% in NAB’s voting share and were represented by voting proxy group, the Australian Council of Superannuation Investors (ACSI).
McEwan said: “They definitely could have a voice at that size but would they be able to get a resolution up? They can say what they like but it doesn’t mean we have to do what they say unless they can get a resolution voted on by all shareholders.
“No-one has told me directly what to do, they have their own views but haven’t told me anything specifically.”
He said he did not meet with proxy voting groups but that chair Philip Chronican spoke with them on matters on remuneration, climate change and governance in advance of the annual general meeting.
The firm’s two largest shareholders were currently Vanguard and BlackRock thanks to their large proportion of index funds which had to hold the stock and McEwan said he spoke to them “once a year, maximum twice” on business strategy.
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
Super funds had a “tremendous month” in November, according to new data.
Australia faces a decade of deficits, with the sum of deficits over the next four years expected to overshoot forecasts by $21.8 billion.
APRA has raised an alarm about gaps in how superannuation trustees are managing the risks associated with unlisted assets, after releasing the findings of its latest review.
Compared to how funds were allocated to March this year, industry super funds have slightly decreased their allocation to infrastructure in the six months to September – dropping from 11 per cent to 10.6 per cent, according to the latest APRA data.
TOP PERFORMING FUNDS
ACS FIXED INT - AUSTRALIA/GLOBAL BOND
Fund name
3y(%)pa
1
Spire Oaktree Opportunities XI Second Close
61.07 3 y p.a(%)
2
Spire Oaktree Opportunities XI First Close USD
59.21 3 y p.a(%)
3
DomaCom Lot 21 Chellaston Road Munno Para West SA 5115 Australia
31.73 3 y p.a(%)
4
Fidante Credit Suisse Global Private Equity
30.15 3 y p.a(%)
5
DomaCom 4/27 Crombie Avenue Bundall QLD 4217 Australia
26.71 3 y p.a(%)
