UniSuper, a Melbourne-based fund overseeing roughly A$110 billion ($77.8 billion) in retirement assets, and Australian Catholic Superannuation, a Sydney-based fund with A$11 billion, announced a non-binding agreement to move forward with the merger they began studying six months ago.
"Following an extensive due diligence process and independent review, each board has concluded that the merger is in the best financial interests of their respective members," said UniSuper CEO Peter Chun in a news release.
Greg Cantor, Australian Catholic's CEO, in the same news release, called achieving greater scale "part of our commitment to act in the best financial interests of our members."
A year ago, when UniSuper announced it would begin accepting participants from outside its traditional higher education and research sectors, then-UniSuper CEO Kevin O'Sullivan noted that scale is becoming "increasingly critical in delivering strong performance and competitive fees for the benefit of all members."
Both funds said the next stage will entail working through a detailed planning process, with an anticipated finalization of the merger by the end of 2022.
Australian Catholic's funds could be merged into UniSuper as early as November, according to the Australian Catholic news release.
