5655.0 - Managed Funds, Australia, Dec 2005  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 24/02/2006   
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Note: Delay in the release of March 2006 issue

The March 2006 issue of Managed Funds, Australia (cat.no. 5655.0) scheduled for release on 26 May 2006 has been delayed. The ABS has not yet completed quality assurance procedures for some aspects of the data.

The publication is expected to be released on 9 June 2006. The release date will be confirmed on the website as soon as possible.




December 2005 - Main Features

DECEMBER KEY FIGURES

Dec Qtr 2004
Sep Qtr 2005
Dec Qtr 2005
Consolidated Assets
$m
$m
$m

Superannuation funds
414 694
472 648
505 270
Life insurance offices(a)
183 598
191 426
194 564
Other managed funds
216 846
245 378
255 479
Total
815 138
909 452
955 313

(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 10

Total consolidated assets
Graph: Total consolidated assets



DECEMBER KEY POINTS


CONSOLIDATED ASSETS
  • Total consolidated assets of managed funds institutions was $955.3b at 31 December 2005, an increase of $45.9b (5.0%) from the revised September quarter 2005 figure, reflecting, in part, changes in asset values during the quarter. During the December quarter 2005, the S&P/ASX 200 increased by 2.6%, the price of foreign shares (represented by the US S&P 500) increased by 1.6% and the $A depreciated against the $US by 3.7%. Domestic bond prices fell during the quarter with the 5 year Treasury Bond yield increasing by 0.2 percentage points to 5.32%.
  • Consolidated assets of superannuation funds increased by $32.6b (6.9%), public unit trusts by $9.5b (4.9%), life insurance offices by $3.1b (1.6%), cash management trusts by $0.5b (1.2%), and friendly societies by $0.1b (2.4%). Consolidated assets of common funds remained virtually unchanged.
  • Investment managers had $940.6b in funds under management at 31 December 2005, up $37.6b (4.2%) from the revised September quarter 2005 figure. They managed $654.9b (68.6%) of the consolidated assets of managed funds institutions.


NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE (QUARTER) Release Date
March 2006 26 May 2006



REVISIONS THIS ISSUE

There have been revisions in some series as a result of quality assurance work undertaken with data providers.



SIGNIFICANT EVENTS

  • Since the December 2004 quarter, the ABS has been using a new data source to compile its superannuation estimates in Managed Funds (ABS cat. no. 5655.0). Statistics are now compiled from a quarterly data collection conducted by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) for super funds with assets greater than $50m, supplemented by estimates for other APRA regulated funds, and estimates of self-managed funds regulated by the Australian Taxation Office.
  • The new data source led to an increase in the estimate of the level of aggregate superannuation statistics (table 3) in the December 2004 quarter. Accordingly, aggregates from the December 2004 quarter back to the March 2001 quarter have been revised to account for the new data source, and to preserve the time series.
  • In addition, the ABS has reviewed the methodology used to compile estimates of superannuation fund asset detail. This issue of Managed Funds releases the asset detail from the December 2004 quarter onwards, and revises previously published asset detail, due to the updating of the methodology.
  • The ABS has found that investment managers have had difficulty classifying superannuation funds placed through platforms, as they have not been able to identify the actual source of funds. These funds have previously been reported in "other investment managers". They have now been reclassified into superannuation funds back to the March 2001 quarter. See table 8. In addition, an adjustment has been made to the "other investment managers" series to account for undercoverage of selected fund managers. This adjustment has also been applied back to the March 2001 quarter.
  • Investigations will continue during 2006 to identify any other areas of undercoverage in investment manager series.


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 Glen Malam on Canberra (02) 6252 5040.



ANALYSIS


CONSOLIDATED ASSETS

By type of institution

At 31 December 2005, consolidated assets of superannuation funds were $505.3b, up $32.6b (6.9%) since September 2005. Consolidated assets of public unit trusts increased by $9.5b (4.9%), whilst the assets of the remaining types of institutions increased by $0.5b or less.

Graph: Consilated Assets: By type of institution


By type of asset

The major increases in assets for the quarter were in assets overseas, up $24.6b (14.0%) and equities and units in trusts, up $15.4b (4.3%), cash and deposits, up $5.8b (9.5%), other assets, up $5.2b (19.4%) and loans and placements, up $1.2b (6.4%) . These were partially offset by decreases in holdings of long term securities, down $5.4b (-6.4%) and land and buildings, down $1.0b (-0.9%).


Cross investment

The table below presents the unconsolidated, cross-invested and consolidated assets of managed funds by type of fund as at 31 December 2005.

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

Life insurance offices
229 282
34 718
194 564
Superannuation funds
666 357
161 087
505 270
Public unit trusts
234 680
32 006
202 674
Friendly societies
6 737
2 045
4 692
Common funds
10 392
370
10 022
Cash management trusts
38 091
-
38 091
Total
1 185 539
230 226
955 313

- nil or rounded to zero (including null cells)



UNCONSOLIDATED ASSETS

Life insurance offices

At 31 December 2005, the total assets of life insurance offices were $229.3b, an increase of $0.8b since September 2005. There were increases in equities and units in trusts of $3.6b (2.3%), land and buildings of $0.6b (7.7%) and other financial assets of $0.2b (7.0%). Decreases were recorded for long term securities, down $2.0b (-8.4%), short term securities, down $1.3b (-9.7%) and assets overseas, down $0.6b (-4.2%).

Graph: Unconsolidated Assets - Life Insurance offics


Superannuation funds

The total assets of superannuation funds held outside of life offices was $666.4b at 31 December 2005, an increase of $35.8b (5.7%) since September 2005. Major increases were recorded for assets overseas, up $25.3b (20.8%), equities and units in trusts, up $11.8b (3.7%) and cash and deposits, up $2.4b (4.3%). There were decreases in long term securities of $3.0b (-5.8%) and land and buildings of $2.5b (-7.0%).

Graph: Unconsolidated Assets - Superannuation Funds


Public unit trusts

The total assets for public unit trusts was $234.7b at 31 December 2005, up $10.0b (4.5%) from the September 2005 figure. The major increases were in equities and units in trusts, up $3.7b (4.3%) and other financial assets, up $2.9b (64.7%). Assets overseas decreased by $0.1b (-0.4%) and cash and deposits decreased by $0.1b (-1.4%).

Graph: Unconsolidated Assets - Public Unit Trusts


Friendly societies

Total assets of friendly societies was $6.7b at 31 December 2005, up $0.1b from the September 2005 figure. At the end of the quarter, equities and units in trusts stood at $2.4b, short term securities at $1.2b and long term securities at $1.0b.

Graph: Unconsolidated Assets - Friendly societies


Common funds

Total assets of common funds was $10.4b at 31 December 2005, virtually unchanged from the September 2005 figure. Short term securities and loans and placements account for 33.4% and 22.4% respectively of total common funds' assets.

Graph: Unconsolidated Assets - Common Funds


Cash management trusts

Total assets of cash management trusts was $38.1b at 31 December 2005, up $0.5b (1.2%) since September 2005. Short term securities accounted for 70.3% of total cash management trusts' assets.

Graph: Unconsolidated Assets - Cash management trusts



INVESTMENT MANAGERS

Source of funds under management

The total funds under management by investment managers has increased by $37.6b (4.2%) at 31 December 2005, from a revised September 2005 quarter estimate of $903.0b.


The value of funds under management on behalf of superannuation funds increased by $13.7b (3.9%), public unit trusts increased $2.7b (2.6%) and cash management trusts increased by $0.8b (2.5%). This was partially offset by decreases in the value of funds under management on behalf of life insurance offices of $2.5b (-1.8%) and common funds of $0.6b (-6.6%), while friendly societies remained virtually the same.


The value of funds under management on behalf of sources other than managed funds increased $18.2b (7.9%) to $247.1b, from a revised September 2005 quarter estimate of $228.9b. Other investment managers increased $11.7b (38.0%), funds under management on behalf of other sources increased to $3.6b (12.3%) and government increased $3.5b (20.3%).These were partially offset by a decrease in funds under management on behalf of other trusts, down $1.5b (-1.2%). The value of funds under management on behalf of overseas sources increased to $38.6b, up $5.3b (16.0%) from the previous quarter.


The value of assets of managed funds that were invested through investment managers was $654.9b at 31 December 2005, representing 68.6% of the consolidated assets of managed funds.

Graph: Unconsolidated Assets - Source of funds under management