A 3.9 per cent loss for the median fund in June was a characteristic finish to a shocking year, reported Superratings, in which the average super fund’s balanced option lost 6.4 per cent. Vision SuperSaver’s return of -1.7 per cent was best, while the Legg Mason Corporate MasterTrust was still understood to have been sold (to ING) last month despite its balanced option’s -15.87% showing.
Investors who applied for units in Basis Capital funds in June 2007 will get their $23 million back, after the Supreme Court of NSW found in favour of June applicants and agreed with BT Financial Group’s arguments that the June application monies were never properly a part of Basis funds. The Court also found in favour of June redeemers who will now be treated as creditors of the funds with their proceeds calculated on the basis of the relevant fund’s value as at June 30, 2007.
Cuscal appointed Helene Upton (ex-Gemworth Financial) to the newly-created role of national BDM for superannuation. She will help present Cuscal’s white-labelled transactional banking products to funds. Advance Asset Management appointed AllianceBernstein as a manager within its Advance Australian Fixed Interest Multi-Blend Fund.
Telstra Super said its new chief executive would be Martin Crowe, previously a CFO and company secretary for the fund.
The AusFund eligible rollover fund trumpeted a campaign in which $4.3 million of ‘lost’ super was returned to members in seven weeks, including one single member transfer of $202,600.
AMP Capital Investors acquire the first investment for its new Asian Giants Infrastructure Fund – a significant minority equity stake in India’s Gayatri Infra Ventures, a road specialist using the ‘build operate transfer’ model. Absolute return equity manager, K2, began unwinding its AUD currency hedging across its K2 Asian Fund and K2 Select International Fund.
Solaris Investment Management, the ex-Suncorp Australian equities team, said a mandate from Electrical Industry Superannuation Scheme of SA would help take its FUM to $400m.
NSF, a $400 million super fund, joined with private health insurer nib to offer members a corporate health plan. nabInvest bought an effective 70 per cent interest in the external management of the Singapore-listed REIT, Cambridge Industrial Trust.
Minister for Super, Nick Sherry, said employers would now be able to make their SG payments for temporary resident employees into funds in the same way as for any other employee. The Government will use existing unclaimed super arrangements to transfer the account balance of temporary residents six months after they depart Australia and no longer hold a visa, if the person has not claimed their super on departure.
Former Cbus CEO, Sandy Grant, joined the board of CareSuper as an employer director.
Corporate super provider, Plum, said its campaign to reduce members’ outstanding TFNs had seen a ten-fold reduction in active members without TFNs, from 14,400 to 900.
And search these headlines at the I&T News archive (at investmenttechnology.com.au):
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