Australian super funds move up global ranks
By Christine St Anne
Tuesday 7 September 2010
Fifteen Australian funds were ranked in the Towers Watson global top 300 funds survey for 2009, up from 12 last in the last survey.
The three new entrants to Towers Watson's survey include Super SA, Western Australian government fund GESB and corporate superannuation fund Telstra Super.
The other 12 funds include the Future Fund (ranked 37), AustralianSuper (89), State Super (98), QSuper (110), UniSuper (123), First State Super (170), ARIA (175), REST (181), ESSSuper (194), Sunsuper (202), HESTA (206) and CBUS (223).
Collectively, the fifteen funds have US$296 billion ($323 billion) in funds under management.
Overall, Australian funds grew by 16 per cent in US$ terms. In contrast, total assets of 300 of the world's largest pension funds grew at a lower rate of 8 per cent, totalling US$11.3 trillion ($12 trillion).
"The results of the latest survey are not surprising given the strong net positive cashflow resulting from our system of compulsory super contributions, as well as the relative strength of growth assets over the past year," Towers Watson senior investment consultant Martin Goss said.
"Australian funds tend to favour higher allocations to growth assets than the global average."
Goss said there would most likely be more fund mergers in Australia as funds look to achieve greater efficiency from a larger scale.
"Australia is ranked in the top 10 in terms of global fund assets. Compared with the global average, Australia has many established funds. There may be more fund mergers in the future, which would be consistent with their global peers," Goss said.
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