Australian Unity Group posted an increase in funds under management (FUM) and funds under advice (FUA) for the year ended 30 June following joint ventures in its Australian Unity Investment (AUI) business.
The group’s FUM rose 2.5 per cent to $12.2 billion and FUA jumped 91 per cent to $2 billion.
Group revenue also increased to $1.12 billion, up 10 per cent from the previous year.
Group managing director Rohan Mead said that he was “particularly pleased” that the financial services business began posting positive contributions in the remainder of the year following “major acquisitions” in the financial advisory and funds management business.
But the expenses incurred from the mergers and acquisitions combined with volatile investment markets did negatively impact the group, resulting in a 13 per cent dip in profit after tax for the period.
Mead said that despite the patchy economic environment and global uncertainty, Australian Unity remains well-placed to respond to a changing demographic in Australia.
“The investments we made during the year demonstrate the depth of opportunity available to Australian Unity to pursue its long-term growth strategy,” he said.
“We believe Australian Unity can play its part in responding to the changing needs [in the market] and help to provide important social infrastructure to the community.”
In September, Australian Unity announced a new specialist team of senior investment executives to complement the business’ existing capabilities and future growth ambitions.
“Over a period of time, we’ve increased our product offering [to] six joint ventures now plus our internal manufacturing property capabilities, so we’ve obviously got growth ambitions,” AUI funds management general manager Fiona Dunn said at the time.
“[The addition of the new team] will structure ourselves in a way that we think will best deliver on our growth plans. It’s complementing what we’ve got.”
AUI boutique partnerships include Vianova Asset Management, Altius Asset Management, Platypus Asset Management, Acorn Capital, Wingate Asset Management, and Seres Asset Management.
