After five years of euphoric performance highs and despondent lows, the $5.7 billion MTAA Super and its asset consultant, Access Capital Advisers, have signed up to do it all over again.
Access CA yesterday announced a five-year deal with the Canberra-based industry fund, the first fixed-term contract in the 15 year history of the relationship, which included the “acquisition and management of a broad range of alternatives”.
This will be welcome news for the funds management side of Access CA, which has recently seen major clients of its infrastructure business, such as SunSuper and Funds SA, freeze commitments.
Access CA said it would also have responsibility for advising MTAA Super on asset allocation, currency hedging, manager configuration for listed asset classes, designing and monitoring liquidity and risk controls across alternative assets.
MTAA Super’s Target Return member investment choice option, which is near 100 per cent invested in illiquid private equity and infrastructure assets, will be closed to new investments from April this year in accordance with a recent ASFA paper on best practice in liquidity risk management.
After losing seven partners during 2010, Access CA CEO Alexander Austin was aiming for a year of low turnover and said the return to the firm of former partners such as Andrew Cunanan (now rebuilding the New York office after its four staff decamped to AMP Capital Investors) was a good sign.
After a dividend reinvestment last year, which allowed the 24 per cent shareholding of departed joint-CEO Paddy Jilek to be bought back by the firm, Austin denied that there was increasing concentration of ownership among the four ‘founding’ directors of Access, including Graham Matthews and David Chessell. He said equity continued to be awarded to new partners such as Sydney office chief Kui Ng, and sole infrastructure chief Tom Snow.
