I completely agree with LGS Super CEO Peter Lambert's comments in the Super Review yesterday, questioning the scale benefits of superannuation fund mergers.   The Cooper Review seems to make the assumption that scale automatically equals economies of scale. In 10 years of working on post-merger integrations I can vouch that this is not always the case. Bringing two organisations tog

I was lucky enough to attend the CEDA luncheon today where the guest speaker was Cameron Clyne, Chief Executive Officer of NAB. I congratulated him on the opening of NAB's first branch in Shanghai, as reported in today's AFR...   I asked whether this was the beginning of a strategic push into Asian markets, similar to ANZ, and, if so, whether the expansion will be via M&am

  The reforms in the Superannuation sector are driving merger and acquisition activity as funds strive to meet the critical mass, and generate the synergies they need, to comply with the reforms.   Care Super & Asset Super   Care Super and Asset Super have announced that they are in merger discussions to form a new fund with $6.2bn AUM. The funds are currently underta

Happy New Year and welcome to our first blog entry for 2011. Well, I think there can be no doubt that mergers and acquisitions are well and truly back on the Australian corporate agenda for the coming year. Let's examine the activity that's out there...   The traditionally quiet month of December saw two major acquisitions announced in the utilities sector, with the sell-off of NSW

Some Straight-forward Cooper Review Facts   FACT: ALL super funds will have to undergo Business Transformation due to the Cooper reforms. Why?   All funds have to develop a MySuper simple, cost-effective product, with a single, diversified portfolio of investments to suit the vast majority of Australian workers.   Trustees of funds will have more responsibility to scru