Mercer to own BT’s $1.9bn portfolio management service
Following the acquisition of Advance Asset Management and the transfer of BT Super, BT’s Private Portfolio Management (PPM) business will transition to Mercer later this year.
According to Simon Eagleton, investments leader for Mercer in the Pacific region, PPM was “a strong business with a unique proposition, providing natural synergies with Mercer’s current investment services”.
The $1.9 billion business was an individually managed account service provided to wholesale clients only.
“Mercer is a well-established multi-manager in Australia, with a long history serving the needs of large endowments and foundations, and more recently individuals intermediated by financial advisers,” Eagleton said.
“The addition of PPM allows us to service the entire investor market — from our Mercer Super Trust members through to private clients and family offices — and support even more investors in achieving their wealth objectives”.
The transition was expected to occur in the fourth quarter of 2023, with PPM employees handling client service, relationship management, and operations support functions moving over to Mercer. They would join a global team of some 2,000 investment professionals.
Mercer had previously completed a merger with BT Super in early April that saw the combined fund reach $63 billion in funds under management and 850,000 members.
The transfer saw some 350 BT employees join Mercer, including the executive appointments of Andrew Wallace and Corrin Collocott to Mercer’s Pacific leadership team.
In its half-year results posted on 8 May, BT’s parent company Westpac reported a 22 per cent net profit jump with a net profit of $4.0 billion.
AUTHOR
Rhea Nath
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