This Month
Australia’s most complained about super funds revealed
Embattled construction industry fund Cbus topped the list of major funds, new data shows, but complaints across the sector jumped last financial year.
- Hannah Wootton
How Aware Super beat the sector’s reputation for bad customer service
The $180 billion super fund invested in service and advice before regulators forced it to. As the rest of the industry now scrambles to catch up, it’s eyeing bigger plans.
- Hannah Wootton
- Opinion
- Customer Champions
How to give customers and investors what they want
Meeting the expectations of increasingly demanding customers while satisfying investors with strong returns requires more than just good intentions.
- Nigel Andrade, Enrico Rizzon and Michael Hone
- Exclusive
- Office
Aware Super’s $200m Brisbane tower deal to revive bruised market
The $180 billion fund is in talks to buy the Ann Street tower. If completed as expected, it will be the first office deal there by a local super fund in five years.
- Campbell Kwan
October
Super funds fork out $423m in marketing blitz
Superannuation funds spent millions of members’ retirement savings on marketing, including sponsorships of AFL and NRL clubs.
- Hannah Wootton
APRA reveals $10.8b spending by super funds but rules out blacklists
The regulator considered a blanket ban on funds making payments to unions or advertisers, but decided against it.
- Hannah Wootton
- Exclusive
- Governance
Big super pushes boards on culture after WiseTech, MinRes dramas
Industry superannuation funds are ramping up their focus on the culture of the companies they invest in as scandals wipe billions off corporate valuations.
- Updated
- Fiona Buffini and Hannah Wootton
- Analysis
- Government Observed
Victoria’s $8b black box, stamped confidential
In 2022, pandemic-indebted Victoria sold its motor registry to a consortium led by Macquarie Bank. Two years later there is not much to show for it, and the secretive registry is free from scrutiny.
- Tom Burton
Big super’s executive gender pay gap revealed
Analysis by The Australian Financial Review also shows who the highest-paid superannuation bosses were last year.
- Hannah Wootton
Mystery investor revealed in Macquarie, Aware’s $6b tilt for TPG fibre
Should the deal proceed as expected, UniSuper stands to emerge as an indirect minority owner of Vocus, taken private by MAM and Aware for $3.5 billion in 2021.
- Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport
- Exclusive
- Superannuation
AustralianSuper ESG option invested in nuclear weapons: report
Australia’s 14 biggest superannuation funds are investing about $3.4 billion in nuclear weapons despite many promising to avoid controversial arms.
- Hannah Wootton
September
Guzman y Gomez IPO backers sell stake as stock joins ASX 200
The hottest IPO darling in recent memory has rallied hard since listing in June, but a few early investors have taken some money off the table.
- Joshua Peach
Roc Partners bankers up for Aware Super’s ProTen; assembles consortium
Roc is not wasting any item, assembling its consortium even before sell-side adviser Macquarie Capital has had chance to set a deadline for first-round offers.
- Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport
For some private tech firms, it’s back to 2016
The so-called funding winter may be over for reasonably established, revenue-generating software, AI and biotech firms as valuations drop from giddy heights.
- Paul Smith
Chicken producer ProTen whets bidder appetite
Sources said MacCap is well advanced with a debt refinancing that would see ProTen emerge with an infrastructure-style funding package.
- Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport
KKR’s John Laing snatches 95pc stake in Sydney Light Rail
Construction of the tracks through George Street caused years of disruptions for pedestrians and sent several businesses packing from the area.
- Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport
August
- Opinion
- Super wars
Shouldn’t retirees be on super boards too?
Super funds have changed since the Cooper inquiry recommended more independent directors. Now, it might be a case of why stop there?
- Jeremy Cooper and Ruth Stringer
Super funds look to take advantage of energy transition
The biggest question for the $3.9 trillion super sector is not whether to invest in the energy transition’s unlisted asset boom, but rather which opportunities are best.
- Hannah Wootton
Vocus revives $6.3b dream to buy TPG’s fibre network
But sources said discussions between the ASX-listed telecommunications group and its Macquarie and Aware Super-owned rival were at a very early stage.
- Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport
July
Is your super fund among these winners?
Investment chiefs of the top performers say there are still plenty of opportunities for the artificial intelligence revolution to drive up retirement savings.
- Hannah Wootton