Australian Retirement Trust has signed a memorandum of understanding with Alcoa Super.
This was the third merger announcement made by the fund since the start of the year as the fund targeted achieving $500 billion by 2030.
The two funds would now commence a comprehensive due diligence process, and any potential merger, via a successor fund transfer (SFT), will only progress if both funds determine that doing so would be in each of their members’ best interest.
Alcoa Super had more than 5,000 members and $2 billion in funds under management.
ART chief executive, Bernard Reilly, said: “Our merger last year to become Australian Retirement Trust was really just the starting point and laid the foundation for our future growth strategy,
“Over the last year alone, we’ve increased our member numbers by more than 200,000 and
our funds under management by $40 billion.
“Mergers and transitions are just one aspect of our growth channels, which also include
pursuing growth through member direct and retail financial advisers.”
The two other MOUs that ART was working on was AvSuper, which had previously looked to merge with CSC, and Commonwealth Bank Group Super.
Australia’s corporate regulator has been told it must quickly modernise its oversight of private markets, after being caught off guard by the complexity, size, and opacity of the asset class now dominating institutional portfolios.
ASIC chair Joe Longo has delivered a blunt warning to superannuation trustees, cautioning that board-level ignorance of member complaints and internal failings will not be tolerated and could trigger enforcement action.
ART has cautioned regulators against imposing overlapping obligations on superannuation funds already operating under APRA’s comprehensive framework, saying that additional oversight should be “carefully targeted to address potential gaps in other parts of the market”.
The super fund has appointed Simone Van Veen as chief member officer.