MA Financial Group, the Sydney alternative asset manager listed on the ASX, has closed the exit on its main real estate credit fund. On 21 October the trustee of the MA Secured Loan Series, an unlisted fund that lends against registered first mortgages over Australian property, suspended applications and redemptions from the 31 October redemption date until at least 31 March 2027. The suspension replaces a limit of 1% of funds under management per month that the fund introduced in August. The trustee pointed to deteriorating residential real estate conditions, which it said are extending the time needed for asset sales and loan refinancings. The suspension will be reviewed monthly and may be varied, extended or lifted, and the fund says there is currently no change to its scheduled monthly distributions.

The fund is open only to wholesale investors, with a minimum initial investment of A$100,000. Its unit price was A$1.0000 at 30 September. MA Financial's fund page gives target returns, net of fees, of the RBA cash rate plus 4.00% a year for Class A units and the RBA cash rate plus 5.00% to 5.75% for Class B, measured over a rolling 12 months. A separate MA disclosure puts the fund's underlying assets at more than A$2.1 billion.

The retail route into the same loans is closing for good. The MA Secured Real Estate Income Fund, sold to retail investors, had assets under management of A$106 million at 30 September, and substantially all of it is invested in the Secured Loan Series. Its responsible entity, MAAM RE Limited, terminated the fund with effect from 21 October. Issuance, switching and redemption of units stopped on that date, and any outstanding redemption request that had not been processed was extinguished. Holders keep their units and will receive net proceeds pro rata as assets are realised, instead of in the order their redemption requests were lodged. The responsible entity expects monthly distributions to continue during the wind-up, but says it cannot yet confirm when capital will start to be returned or when the wind-up will finish, because the wind-up does not speed up cash coming back from the underlying fund.

The listed vehicle is the one route that still offers a daily exit. The MA Credit Income Trust (ASX code MA1) held about 18.5% exposure to the Secured Loan Series at 30 September, through the MA Credit Income Fund (Wholesale). Its responsible entity, Equity Trustees, said the manager does not consider the suspension to have a material impact on the trust's liquidity, net asset value or portfolio performance, and that unitholders can still sell on market, with buy-backs also available as a capital management tool. The trust's unaudited estimated NTA was A$2.0113 per unit at the close on 21 October. On 22 October its units last traded at A$1.805, down 3.5 cents on the day. The NTA figure and the price are a day apart, so the gap between them is not an exact discount, but the units are changing hands below the manager's own estimate of asset backing.

For MA Financial itself, the problem sits in one corner of a larger book. In its update for the three months to 30 September, released on 21 October, the group reported assets under management of A$15.7 billion and said real estate private credit makes up about 15% of that total. It said outflows from its private credit funds remained elevated as problems in residential construction and development hurt investor sentiment. The group raised no money in listed markets in the quarter, against A$183 million raised through MA1 in the same quarter of 2025.

For a holder based outside Australia, the three vehicles now behave very differently. Money in the wholesale fund is locked until at least the end of March 2027. Money in the retail feeder will come back pro rata on no fixed timetable. Units in MA1 can be sold on the ASX, in Australian dollars, at whatever the market pays on the day, so any move in the Australian dollar against the holder's home currency adds to or subtracts from the result. Earlier freezes in the same market are covered in Metrics' ASX credit trusts suspended, NTAs cut, Metrics' three ASX credit trusts trade again after clean audits and Bathla's A$3.4 billion collapse: where off-plan buyers and private-credit holders stand.

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Sources

Sources read 22 October 2026.