Sunsuper and Australia Post Superannuation Scheme announced Friday they will explore a merger, only a week or so after Sunsuper and QSuper agreed to combine by September.
For Sydney-based APSS, proceeding with the merger would catapult the A$8 billion ($6.2 billion) fund from the lower realms of the industry's rankings to the top, after Sunsuper and QSuper, both Brisbane-based funds, said 11 days ago that they'll combine by September to create a A$200 billion super fund.
A review to determine whether a merger makes sense will be completed "within the next year," an APSS spokesman said in an email. If the outcome is positive "we would work towards merging APSS members and assets into the merged fund in 2022."
A joint news release Friday said a merger "would enable the APSS to tap into significant economies of scale that Sunsuper brings with its more than A$80 billion in funds under management and 1.4 million members."
APSS has been closed to new postal employees since 2012, and a new externally managed defined contribution plan established by Australia Post for those employees is now run by AustralianSuper, the Melbourne-based giant with roughly A$210 billion in retirement assets.
If APSS and Sunsuper go through with a merger, APSS's roughly A$4 billion defined benefit plan will transfer to the merged fund, with Australia Post continuing to cover the liabilities, the joint news release said.
"All members with accumulation savings accounts" meanwhile, numbering 27,200 at the end of December, would have their account balances transferred to equivalent investment products at the merged fund, the APSS spokesman said.
