Colonial wins gold but MLC up on platform
By Rebecca Evans
The combined Commonwealth/Colonial group has prevailed as the dominant force in the retail managed funds industry, despite registering a drop in inflows of $616 million for the year to date as it struggles to combat the emergence of new players in the market, according to a new report by Assirt Research .
Commonwealth/Colonial dominates with its total investment management funds totalling $78.7 billion — a 12 per cent market share — ahead of Macquarie, which has 9 per cent of the market.
This compares to 8 per cent for AMP and 7 per cent each for BT /Westpac and State Street Global Advisors .
Assirt says despite its substantial size advantage, emerging players are making it more difficult for Commonwealth/Colonial to stay on top.
“The challenge of maintaining market leadership is reflected in the loss of some retail market share in distribution,” Assirt says.
The National/MLC group was not included in the total investment management funds figures because it is predominantly a platform provider with no investment management, according to Assirt.
The group dominates the platform arena, with $35 billion under advice, almost $10 billion more than its nearest rival, AMP.
However, it was the Commonwealth/Colonial group which had the highest inflow figures in the platform market for the quarter, receiving $1.2 billion.
BT/Westpac came in second with an inflow of $893 million, while St George took in $512 million and Macquarie received $504 million.
Other notable performers during the June quarter include AXA , which took in $605 million to achieve the highest retail net inflow of funds. It also took in the second highest amount over the year to June behind UBS, which received $2.3 billion over the 12 month period.
Recommended for you
With the final tally for FY25 now confirmed, how many advisers left during the financial year and how does it compare to the previous year?
HUB24 has appointed Matt Willis from Vanguard as an executive general manager of platform growth to strengthen the platform’s relationships with industry stakeholders.
Investment manager Drummond Capital Partners has announced a raft of adviser-focused updates, including a practice growth division, relaunched manager research capabilities, and a passive model portfolio suite.
When it comes to M&A activity, the share of financial buyers such as private equity firms in Australia fell from 67 per cent to 12 per cent in the last financial year.