Margin Call: No slam dunk as AustralianSuper’s Ian Silk sticks to the shadows

Ian Silk pictured in his Sydney office, is the head of Australian Super and a former pollie. The mad Hawthorn football fan who is a champion of women's rights at work and who happens to preside over billions of dollars in people's superannuation funds. Pic: MitchCameron

Not exactly a slam dunk week for Aussie Super boss Ian Silk, who with about $140 billion in members’ funds under management runs one of our nation’s biggest organisations.

Silk is not usually afraid to put his views on the table.

He’s a male champion of change and has strong views on executive pay reflecting performance rather than just turning up to sit in the top office day after day.

But this week there was no leading from the front by also Basketball Australia director Silk as the Australian Boomers hung their heads in shame over their courtside all-in brawl with their Filipino counterparts in Manila.

Silk was nowhere to be seen or heard either when it came to Ben Gray’s BGH Capital-led (but rejected) bid for Paula Dwyer’s Healthscope last month, which saw Silk’s AusSuper morph from traditional equities investor on behalf of its union member funds to bidding consortium member alongside private equity.

And now Aussie Super is facing what it predicts will be more subdued and potentially volatile returns following what’s been a period of strong growth on global markets.

For the 2018 financial year, AusSuper said today that its flagship balanced fund delivered returns of 11.08 per cent from 12.44 per cent previously.

Any wonder Silk wants to get into bed with Gray.

Read the full Margin Call column tomorrow in print and online.