The $3 billion Media Super is reviewing its investment manager line up with a view to consolidation on the back of last year’s merger between the industry funds for journalists/entertainers and printers.
Michael Rooney, general manager of operations at the fund, said the fund’s investment committee was in the process of determining the new management structure in conjunction with its asset consultant, Frontier Investment Consulting.
“When we merged with JUST Super we elected that the best method was to take over all investment managers and then work with the asset consultant to come up with a long-term strategy,” he said.
“We will consolidate management obviously, and the number of investment managers we have. We will also look at other opportunities as well.”
The fund is also close to finalising the new arrangements for insurance and master custody, which are both out to tender.
The contracts are currently held with three insurers – Hannover Life, IUS and ING and Rice Warner has been appointed to oversee the tender process.
Both Hannover Life, the legacy insurer for death and TPD at Print Super, and IUS, which provided income protection for Print Super, were retained by Media Super following the merger.
ING held all the insurance policies at JUST Super, and these were taken over by Media Super after the merger to ensure the same level of cover was retained for members.
“We elected to take over those policies and initially get the same cover with the idea that we would go out to market and tender as a single group under Media Super, which is what we’re currently doing,” Rooney said.
“We will definitely have one insurer for death and TPD; we’re open to whether the same insurer provides income protection, or we pick a different provider for income protection. We’re happy to split the two if need be.”
Rooney said Media Super expected to finalise the tenders by the end of the financial year, and if the incumbents were replaced, it would be in the last quarter of the calendar year, after end of year audits were completed.
The master custody contract is currently held by BNP Paribas, who was the legacy master custodian of Print Super and was retained by Media Super.
All of the incumbent providers were given the opportunity to reapply.
