The $17 billion industry superannuation fund Sunsuper has retained its investment consultant Mercer, signing a contract for three more years.
The new contract includes a tailored set of investment services, including strategic asset allocation, portfolio construction, boutique manager research and investment operations consulting.
"Mercer's ability and willingness to tailor services for Sunsuper is the way of the future for consulting firms as they seek to provide services to internal teams that are growing and becoming more sophisticated," Sunsuper chief investment officer David Hartley said.
Sunsuper initially appointed Mercer in June 2008.
Mercer Investment Consulting Australia and New Zealand business leader Graeme Mather said the company had renewed contracts or expanded business relationships with 17 clients this year.
"Our business has been evolving for several years in recognition of a growing client call for niche and deep advice across asset classes and also per industry sector," Mather said.
"We have been building on our specialist frameworks, created to service clients more efficiently and to provide them access to greater insight."
He said the expansion of Mercer Investment Consulting had led to several new appointments, bringing the total number of investment consulting staff in Australia to 107.
Mercer has appointed Andrew Liddell as head of technical products and services for Australia and New Zealand.
Liddell joined from van Eyk, where he was head of technology.
The firm has hired former Victorian Funds Management analyst Claire Tan as an analyst to support the technical products team.
Paddy Brown has joined Mercer's global real estate boutique as a senior researcher in Sydney. He previously worked at BlackRock in London.
Jennifer Hague has joined Mercer Sentinel and will be responsible for transition management, Phil Parkinson has transferred from Mercer's London office to Sydney as a senior analyst, Sarah Porter has joined the business development team to support retail clients and Anusha Dupagunta has joined the manager research team as an analyst.
"We're positioned for growth across the spectrum of the investment consulting business to service all our clients at the highest level, placing them competitively for the future with innovative and 'future-focused' investment solutions," Mather said.
"To this end, we will be continuing our recruitment program during the remainder of the year."
