Mercer reviews small caps, Aussie equities mandates

Mercer Investments Australia has overhauled the fund manager line-up across its Australian equities and small-caps funds following an investment review, retaining some incumbents and awarding fresh mandates at the same time.

Previously, the managers for the Mercer Australian Shares Fund were Ausbil Investment Management, FIL Investment Management (Australia), Firetrail Investments, Greencape Capital, Plato Investment Management, Vinva Investment Management and WaveStone Capital.

Effective May 28, Mercer trimmed the lineup to Ausbil, Greencape, Pendal, Plato and First Sentier Group's quantitative equities arm RQI Investors.

The changes saw the removal of incumbents and the introduction of RQI Investors and Pendal.

The Mercer Australian Small Companies Fund also experienced changes following a review.

The previous managers for that strategy were Firetrail Investments, RQI Investors, Longwave Capital Partners and Perennial Value Management.

The new roster shows only Longwave and RQI Investors are overseeing the small-caps fund.

Mercer said it regularly assesses external managers as part of its responsibility for establishing, implementing and monitoring each fund's investment objectives and strategy.

The changes follow Mercer updating the fund manager stable for its Mercer International Shares Fund and Advance International Shares Fund in early 2026 in a bid to streamline the structure to focus on core strategies that deliver more consistent excess performance.

In the latest update, the buy and sell spreads for the Aussie and small-cap funds have also changed.

The Australian Shares Fund's buy and sell spreads were 0.21% respectively. As at May 28, they were 0.17% respectively.

Australian Small Companies Fund's buy and sell spreads were 0.29% respectively. They are now 0.24% respectively.

Mercer said it revised the buy and sell spreads to reflect the latest available buy and sell spread costs of the underlying investment managers.