Hostplus, a Melbourne-based superannuation fund with more than A$68 billion ($49 billion) in retirement assets and Statewide Super, an Adelaide-based fund with roughly A$12 billion in assets, announced Friday the finalization of the merger the two have been working toward since mid-2021.
In an environment where Australian regulators have touted the benefits of scale for super fund participants, David Elia, Hostplus' CEO, said in a news release that the combination's 1.5 million participants make Hostplus a top five fund by membership, while its more than A$80 billion in assets make it a top 10 fund by assets.
"Our upcoming merger with A$6 billion fund, Maritime Super, in addition to organic growth, means we can reasonably expect to reach A$100 billion ... in 2023," Mr. Elia said.
Scale, meanwhile, hasn't inhibited Hostplus' ability to deliver healthy investment gains, with the fund's MySuper balanced default option "ranked No. 1 for net investment performance over seven, 10, 15 and 20 years," Mr. Elia said, citing survey results from industry research firm SuperRatings.
