The merging Print Super and JUST Super funds have decided in-principle which member administrator and which custodian the new $2.2 billion, 108,000 member scheme will retain.
Chief executive-designate of the new fund, Print Super boss Ross Martin, said the merger working party would meet today to formalise the administrator and custodian appointments. It is understood Print Super’s administrator, Pillar, will take over the JUST member accounts currently overseen by Superpartners, with Pillar’s ability to strike unit prices thought to be a deciding factor. On the master custody front, the merger working party faced a choice between JUST’s National Custodian Services, and Print Super’s BNP Paribas Securities Services. Martin would not comment at presstime on any future service providers for the new fund, but said the decisions had been made as a result of an informal review, not a full-blown tender process. The working party conducting the reviews are Martin; JUST Super CEO Mi Thian-De Wind; JUST chair Gerard Noonan and director Chris Warren; and Print Super directors Reg Emonds and Steve Walsh. Martin said decisions on an asset consultant(JUST’s Frontier up against Print Super’s Mercer) and insurer (JUST’s ING Life versus Print’s Hannover Life and Allianz) would be made soon. The composition of the new board is also to be finalised, although JUST chair Noonan has been confirmed as the new chair, due to the intended retirement of Print Super chair Gordon Cooke.
Since taking over the top job at the $44 billion Funds SA more than a year ago, chief executive John Piteo has ushered in an investment function overhaul and wrapped up an important stage of the fund’s five-year data transformation program. It pledges to recentre around investment performance and more efficient processes, as the “missing piece” has been found in incoming CIO Con Michalakis.
Darcy SongJanuary 10, 2025
