Under section 1017BB of the Corporations Act, a trustee of a registrable superannuation entity (RSE) must make portfolio holdings disclosure information publicly available on the RSE’s website no later than 90 days after each reporting day.  As the first reporting day, 31 December 2021, is not far away, trustees of RSEs had been eagerly awaiting the Corporations Amendment (Portfolio Holdings Disclosure) Regulations 2021 (PHD Regs). 

The PHD Regs were needed to answer two questions:

1. When are disclosure items aggregated?
2. How does PHD information need to be organised?

The final PHD Regs permit more aggregation of investments than had been expected based on the exposure drafts. 

When are disclosure items aggregated?

The PHD Regs do not require the trustee of the RSE to disclose:

• individual asset names;
• values for individual assets; or
• weightings for individual assets,

for the following kinds of assets:

• Cash;
• Fixed Income – Internally managed;
• Fixed Income – Externally managed;
• Unlisted Equity – Externally managed;
• Unlisted Property – Externally managed;
• Unlisted Infrastructure – Externally managed; or
• Unlisted Alternatives – Externally managed.

For unlisted equity, unlisted property, unlisted infrastructure and unlisted alternatives that are internally managed, the trustee must disclose the name of the individual assets and certain further information as specified in table 1 of Schedule 8D.  However, values and weightings are aggregated.  

The PHD Regs do not permit any aggregation for listed equity, listed property, listed infrastructure or listed alternatives.       

Derivatives are aggregated and presented across the following kinds of derivatives:

1. Swaps;
2. Forwards;
3. Futures; and
4. Options.

The PHD Regs also require information about derivatives to be presented by assets class and by currency.

How does PHD information need to be organised?

The general rule is that the trustee must organise the information about an investment option in a way that is:

1. consistent with the tables in Schedule 8D to the PHD Regs;
2. easily downloadable and readable; and
3. in one or more formats, with at least one format being a delimited file format.

The PHD Regs provide that information may be displayed using a different number of columns or rows from the tables in Schedule 8D, but the information must be organised consistently with those tables. 

The PHD Regs allow for the use of subsidiary tables, if all of the information referred to in Schedule 8D is readily accessible from the combination of tables.  For example, a trustee might present the information so that a visitor to the website can access the information about a specific kind of investment item by clicking a tab containing that information, rather than scrolling down the screen.

Delimited file formats are formats, such as .csv and .txt, are prescribed to allow data to be analysed more easily. 

What does aggregation look like in practice? 

The following is a snapshot of the disclosure for the unlisted alternatives part of a hypothetical growth option that is invested with only two external managers, Triangle and Ram’s Head.

The PHD Regs permit aggregation for Unlisted Alternatives assets that are externally managed.  Consequently, individual asset names do not need to be disclosed, but individual manger names do need to be disclosed.   

In practice, this means that the trustee of the RSE would be required to disclose:

If the PHD Regs did not permit aggregation, the trustee would have been required to disclose:

How can we help?

For advice about the PHD Regs or portfolio holdings disclosure more generally, please contact Phil Turner.