AvSuper and Australian Retirement Trust (ART) have signed a heads of agreement to proceed with the merger.
The funds confirmed the move as a “critical and positive step forward” in the merger process and it confirms the intention of both parties to proceed with the merger in good faith.
Having begun discussions in 2022 and completed extensive due diligence, the two funds now expect the merger to complete on 30 April 2024.
“There’s still a lot of work to be done before the merger takes place. Our working groups are continuing to plan and commence activity for this transition behind the scenes, including organising the transfer of defined benefit accounts to ART,” AvSuper said in a statement.
“Through this process, we were impressed by ART’s expertise across the board as well as their competitive pricing and insurance offer.
“For members and employers, we are confident that the proposed merger will provide greater efficiencies, enhanced products, broader services, and increased capability.”
The aviation-focused fund had previously been in talks with Commonwealth Super Corporation (CSC) about a possible merger but talks fell through.
During the 2022-23 financial year, the AvSuper balanced growth option returned 9.2 per cent.
ART is Australia’s second largest super fund, having been created in February 2022 through the merger of QSuper and Sunsuper. It now has over 2.2 million members and $260 billion in funds under management.
ART is no stranger to mergers, having not only completed its own merger as well as the AvSuper merger, it is also in talks with Alcoa Super which has 500,000 members and Commonwealth Bank Group Super which has 67,000 members.
It has also welcomed a $4.3 billion successor fund transfer (SFT) from Woolworths and Endevaour Group which brought total assets to $260 billion in August.
