5655.0 - Managed Funds, Australia, Mar 2004  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 28/05/2004   
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MARCH KEY FIGURES

Mar Qtr 2003
Dec Qtr 2003
Mar Qtr 2004
Consolidated Assets
$m
$m
$m

Superannuation funds
293,533
342,771
354,196
Life insurance offices(a)
166,384
165,954
166,730
Other managed funds
175,645
190,362
192,009
Total
635,561
699,088
712,935

(a) Investments by superannuation funds which are held and administered by life insurance offices are included under life insurance offices.
See note on consolidation in explanatory notes, para 8

Total consolidated assets
Graph: Graph - Total consolidated assets



MARCH KEY POINTS


CONSOLIDATED ASSETS
  • Total consolidated assets of managed funds institutions was $712.9b at 31 March 2004, an increase of $13.8b (2%) from the revised December quarter 2003 figure. This increase mainly reflected increases in asset values for the quarter. During the March quarter 2004, the S&P/ASX 200 increased by 3%. The price of foreign shares (represented by the US S&P 500) increased by 1%, offset by a 1% appreciation of the $A against the $US. Domestic bond prices increased during the quarter with the 5 year Treasury Bond yield decreasing by 0.2 percentage points.
  • Consolidated assets of superannuation funds, public unit trusts and common funds experienced increases of $11.4b (3%), $1.6b (1%), and $0.3 (4%) respectively. Assets of life insurance offices, friendly societies and cash management trusts remained virtually the same.
  • The major asset movements for the quarter were in equities and units in trusts, up $8.7b (3%), assets overseas, up $1.5b (1%), land and buildings, up $1.5b (2%) and long term securities, up $1.1b (2%).
  • Investment managers had $705.5b in funds under management, up $20.8b (3%) from the revised December quarter 2003 figure. They managed $479.5b (67%) of consolidated managed funds' assets.


NOTES

CHANGES IN THIS ISSUE

There are no changes in this issue.



REVISIONS THIS ISSUE

There have been revisions in many series as a result of quality assurance work undertaken with data providers. In particular revisions have been made to: fund managers (revised back to December 2001 in respect of classification of source of funds) and public unit trusts (revised back to September 2002 as a result of coverage checks and changes in reporting arrangements due to merger activity).


In consultation with the Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority (APRA) and the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) total assets and the asset profile of small and medium superannuation funds has been adjusted and revised back to June 1999 to reflect analysis of the annual regulatory returns to ATO and APRA. The data for ATO regulated funds and small and medium APRA funds in this publication are consistent with the revised data published by APRA in December 2003 reference quarter edition of Super Trends (see www.apra.gov.au/statistics).



ROUNDING

Discrepancies may occur between sums of the component items and totals due to rounding.



INQUIRIES

For further information about these and related statistics, contact the National Information and Referral Service on 1300 135 070 or Amanda Seneviratne on Canberra (02) 6252 7489.



ANALYSIS


CONSOLIDATED ASSETS

By type of institution

At 31 March 2004, consolidated assets of superannuation funds was $354.2b, up $11.4b (3%) since December 2003. Consolidated assets of public unit trusts and common funds experienced increases of, $1.6b (1%), and $0.3 (4%) respectively. Assets of life insurance offices, friendly societies and cash management trusts remained virtually the same at $166.7b, $4.5b and $29.6b respectively.

Graph: Graph - Consolidated assets by type of institution


By type of asset

The major asset movements for the quarter were in equities and units in trusts, up $8.7b (3%), assets overseas, up $1.5b (1%), land and buildings, up $1.5b (2%) and long term securities, up $1.1b (2%).

Graph: Graph - Consolidated assets by type of fund


Cross investment

The table below presents the unconsolidated, cross-invested and consolidated assets of managed funds by type of fund as at 31 March 2004.

Unconsolidated assets
Cross- invested assets
Consolidated assets
Type of fund
$m
$m
$m

Life insurance offices
197,456
30,725
166,730
Superannuation funds
430,224
76,028
354,196
Public unit trusts
177,325
28,617
148,709
Friendly societies
6,198
1,660
4,538
Common funds
9,563
387
9,177
Cash management trusts
29,586
-
29,586
Total
850,351
137,416
712,935

- nil or rounded to zero (including null cells)



UNCONSOLIDATED ASSETS

Life insurance offices

At 31 March 2004, the total assets of life insurance offices stood at $197.5b, an increase of $0.7b since December 2003. Major increases were in equities and units in trusts of $3.1b (3%), long term securities of $0.9b (4%) and short term securities of $0.5b (4%). Cash and deposits decreased by $1.9b (20%) while loans and placements remained virtually unchanged. Assets held overseas decreased by $1.7b (10%).

Graph: Graph - Assets of life insurance offices


Superannuation funds

The total assets of superannuation funds held outside of life offices was $430.2b at 31 March 2004, an increase of $15.0b (4%) since December 2003. Holdings of equities and units in trusts increased by $8.5b (5%), of which private trading corporation shares increased by $5.0b (6%) and units in trusts increased by $3.0b (4%). Currency and deposits increased by $1.7b (4%) and assets held overseas increased by $3.2b (4%). All other asset classes remained steady.

Graph: Graph - Assets of superannuation funds


Public unit trusts

The total assets for public unit trusts was $177.3b at 31 March 2004, an increase of $3.7b (2%) since December 2003. The major increases were in equities and units in trusts, up $2.2b (3%), land buildings, up $0.8b (2%), short term securities, up $0.4b (14%) and cash and deposit, up $0.3b (4%) on December 2003. There were decreases in long term securities of $0.1b (7%). Loans and placements and assets overseas remained virtually unchanged on the previous quarter.

Graph: Graph - Assets of public unit trusts


Friendly societies

Total assets of friendly societies was $6.2 billion at 31 March 2004, virtually unchanged since December 2003. At the end of the quarter, equities and units in trusts stood at $1.8b, long term securities at $1.3b and short term securities at $1.4b. Together they accounted for 72% of total assets.

Graph: Graph - Assets of freindly societies


Common funds

Total assets of common funds was $9.6b at 31 March 2004, an increase of $0.4b (4%) since December 2003. The major increase was in cash and deposits, up $0.4b (48%). Short term securities and loan and placements account for 41% and 24% respectively of total assets.

Graph: Graph - Assets of common funds


Cash management trusts

Total assets of cash management trusts was $29.6b at 31 March 2004, a decrease of $0.3b (1%) since December 2003. Cash and deposits increased by $0.7b (19%) while short term securities decreased by $0.8b (4%). Long term securities decreased by $0.1b (5%). Short term securities accounted for 76% of total assets.

Graph: Graph - Assets of cash management trusts



INVESTMENT MANAGERS

Source of funds under management

During March quarter 2004 there was an increase in total funds under management by investment managers of $20.8b (3%), bringing the total funds under management to $705.5b.


The value of funds under management on behalf of superannuation funds increased by $6.4b (3%), life insurance offices increased by $2.5b (2%), and public unit trusts increased by $1.5b (2%).


During the quarter the value of funds under management on behalf of sources other than managed funds increased $7.7b (4%). Of this, the largest increase was funds under management on behalf of trusts other than public unit trusts, $3.0b (4%). There were increases also in the value of funds under management on behalf of other investment managers, $1.9b (3%) and other sources, $1.5 (9%).


The value of funds under management on behalf of overseas sources increased to $21.4b following an $2.2b (11%) increase from the previous quarter.


Continuing merger activity has resulted in changed reporting arrangements for some fund managers. The ABS continues to work with the relevant fund managers to clarify these changes in reporting and assess their impact on the estimates.


The value of managed funds assets invested through investment managers was $479.5b at 31 March 2004, representing 67% of the consolidated assets of managed funds.

Graph: Graph - Source of funds under management