AMIST Super has said a merger with another industry fund in the medium term could be on the cards.
"A fund of our size, about $1 billion, will of course always look at options to merge over the next three to five years time - but only if it makes sense to our members," AMIST Super chief executive John Livanas said.
As superannuation funds grow, they have to make a decision about whether they want to transition to a more corporate structure, and that involves building scale.
"As funds grow in staff, new challenges arise such as increasing the focus on providing staff with development and career paths, developing knowledge systems and varying management structures," Livanas said.
"All of that is new for super funds, even though it is bread and butter for large industrial companies and banks.
"To retain knowledge and build corporate memory, you need to build a team of experienced people who remain with the company for some time and develop new people within a clear corporate culture."
A merger provides a good way of building scale, but also comes with its own set of disadvantages.
"It will be difficult to merge and keep an existing culture. But that's not a good enough reason not to merge," Livanas said.
"A good management team continually nurtures a corporate culture that focuses on members, develops people and delivers exceptional services and products. And sometimes that involves change."
However, he said AMIST Super could also continue as a boutique fund devoted to the meat industry.
"Currently, we operate as a focused boutique fund with a strong affinity with our members and industry," he said.
"We have a highly skilled and experienced team. Each person has between 20 to 25 years experience, so we can run the fund with relatively few people.
"We can do so for the next 10 to 15 years where we believe it is in the interests of our members."
He said he expected more consolidation would occur in the superannuation industry, but he questioned whether the industry would ever consist of a select few "mega" funds.
"I think you will see further consolidation, but you won't get it down to three or four funds," he said.
"You could well have five or six mega funds, plus a range of smaller boutique funds. I mean, we still have over 20 Australian and foreign subsidiary banks, 37 branches of foreign banks, 105 credit unions and 11 building societies.
"Superannuation and banking are of similar magnitude in size."
