Local Government Super (LGS) expects to finalise the sale of its stake in FuturePlus Financial Services to Energy Industries Superannuation Scheme (EISS) shortly, clearing the way for the recruitment of administration and marketing staff from the financial services company.
LGS is looking to hire 35-40 staff, including client services, marketing, product design, client relationship and financial planning personnel, and FuturePlus employees will be the first to be offered the jobs.
"We are in the process of finalising the sale agreement with EISS. After this has occurred then we will start the recruitment process," LGS chief executive Peter Lambert said.
"FuturePlus employees are our first preference for the jobs on offer. Our aim is to minimise the number of external recruitments.
"Conditional on the agreements being signed, we start recruiting in early November. We hope to have everybody in place by the end of the month."
FuturePlus is co-owned by LGS Super and EISS, but LGS decided earlier this year to sell its stake in the firm following the decision not to merge with EISS.
"We looked at our strategic goals and whether we could achieve them in the current structure. We decided there was no need to merge and if we do want to go down that path, we would first look to engage in dialogue with any potential partner," Lambert said.
He did not rule out a merger of the fund with another party, but said it was unlikely to happen in the near future.
"We will be putting in significant efforts to achieving our short-term goals," he said.
"I don't rule out a merger in the medium term, but culture is important and I'm not aware of any fund out there with a similar culture to ours."
Jeremy Cooper, who chaired the superannuation system review, has previously said he favoured further consolidation of the industry to increase the buying power of super funds.
Although a number of smaller funds are in the process of merging, Lambert said he did not expect to any acceleration of that process.
"Apart from the odd one or two, I think that merger activity is going to die down," he said.
"Most of those that have merged or have announced plans to merge are the obvious ones."
