MA Financial suspends redemptions from property fund with assets exceeding A$2.1 billion
Key Facts
Australia's MA Financial Group told investors on 21 October 2026 that it was fully suspending redemptions from its MA Secured Loan Series, whose underlying assets exceed A$2.1 billion. According to the group's disclosure to the Australian Securities Exchange, the decision followed deteriorating conditions in Australian residential property and disruptions to the timing of cash receipts from some loans. The group said some asset sales had been delayed, as had loan refinancings. This reduced certainty over when some borrowers would repay, the explanation it gave for restricting investor withdrawals. The liquidity shortfall also affected a retail fund that invests in the underlying fund, prompting a decision to terminate it and conduct an orderly wind-up. The retail fund also faces insufficient scale and weak investment demand, according to the group's wind-up notice.
The full suspension followed a monthly redemption cap of up to 1% of funds under management in the MA Secured Loan Series, according to its published terms. Investors' ability to redeem was therefore already restricted before redemptions were halted entirely. The fund's official page confirms that it is also currently closed to new investment applications. Income distributions, meanwhile, remain monthly under the published terms, subject to distributable income and the trustee's discretion. Those terms state that "distributions are paid monthly", linking payment to available income and the trustee's decision. The conditional monthly income payment arrangement thus continues alongside the closure to new investment and the suspension of unit redemptions.
The fund invests in loans secured by registered first mortgages over Australian property, according to the strategy description on the group's website. It is intended for wholesale investors and has a minimum initial investment of A$100,000. Its portfolio targets a weighted average loan term of 12 months. The maximum loan term is 36 months, according to the published strategy. In an earlier disclosure concerning redemption restrictions, the group revealed that the MA Credit Income Fund had approximately 20% exposure to the secured loan fund. That exposure is held through the intermediary wholesale vehicle, the MA Credit Income Fund Wholesale, according to the disclosure addressing the earlier restrictions.
The related retail fund, the MA Secured Real Estate Income Fund, had assets of about A$106 million as of 30 September 2026. The responsible entity linked the decision to terminate it to insufficient scale and weak investment demand, alongside the impact of the underlying fund's restrictions on its liquidity. Investors with outstanding, unprocessed redemption requests will retain their units in the retail fund. They will participate in the wind-up through those units alongside other investors, rather than receiving priority payment for their earlier requests. The notice states that "available net proceeds will be distributed on a pro rata basis". The wind-up plan also confirms that starting this process does not accelerate access to liquidity from the underlying fund in which the retail fund invests.
The developments concern a group operating in alternative asset management, specialising in private credit, real estate and hospitality, according to its official description. The group is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange under the ticker MAF. Its assets under management reached A$15.5 billion in its results for the first half of 2026, up 44% from the first half of 2025. In the same results, credit fund income fell 9%, despite growth in total assets under management across the group. MA Financial attributed the decline in income from these funds to what it described as temporary pressures in real estate credit funds and the use of more capital-efficient growth strategies in asset-backed credit.
The full suspension of redemptions from the MA Secured Loan Series begins on 31 October 2026, according to the group's notice. It will continue until at least 31 March 2027, making that date the minimum announced duration of the suspension. The notice qualified the end of the announced period with the words "at least", without setting a confirmed date for redemptions to resume. For investors in the retail fund being wound up, the responsible entity has not specified when capital distributions from the wind-up will begin. Nor has it specified when those distributions will be completed, saying it "cannot confirm at this time". Capital will be returned through the orderly wind-up process, with its net proceeds distributed proportionately among investors.