Citistreet’s “;business to business”; model is different from the ING Australia (INGA) corporate super admin approach, and may be left as a standalone entity here following its global purchase by ING, according to acting INGA chief Ross Bowden.
Given ING’s US$900 million purchase of the Citi/State Street joint venture was only announced Friday, Bowden said few of the operational details had been worked out. Citistreet will continue to report to the US at least until the deal is consummated, expected to be in Q3, however Bowden said it was likely the group would have local reporting lines to ING after that. Bowden said that while Citistreet dealt primarily with super funds – “;essentially corporate master trusts themselves”; – ING Australia’s corporate super business dealt directly with its employers. For this reason he said the models were different and could sit alongside one another, as other businesses within the ING Group already did, such as the Oasis white-label wrap product, benefiting only from ING’s “;solid governance and oversight”;. Bowden said there were no immediately obvious areas between the two businesses which should be consolidated. Citistreet’s head of marketing and strategy, Alex Kleiman, said all clients (which include Sunsuper and Equipsuper) had been informed and viewed the ING purchase as “;a net positive…as long as we retain our focus on delivering them great service”;.
Future Fund chief investment officer Ben Samild said that FY24 has been a great year for alpha creation, thanks to strong returns in equities and, unusually, across multiple hedge fund strategies all at the same time. He reflected the past few years have been “a difficult time to be an asset owner and to generate positive returns for risk assets” but the Future Fund is tracking well of its long-term mandate.
Simon Hoyle and Darcy SongSeptember 4, 2024
