Ann: Dividend/Distribution - VAS-VAS.AX, page-12

Forgot about this one, sorry folks. Did get to the bottom of this eventually (I had the same frustrating conversation, they are terrible at explaining it). VAS is not a stand alone fund, it is a share class of an overarching fund which has their managed fund as a separate share class. It was the managed fund that suffered a very large redemption from an institutional investor. When managed funds get large redemptions, it can create taxation implications that can in turn impact distributions for the remaining investors. I would have thought that any significant redemption from the managed fund should have been quarantined, not flow over to the VAS ETF. Apparently not. The reference to the 'higher than normal distribution the quarter before' was poorly articulated (I had the same problem). It was a reference to that same quarter in the previous year, not the immediately preceding quarter.

Basically, it's just an example of the vagaries of a managed fund. Dealing with inflows and outflows creates issues with managing distributions. It is for this reason many investors prefer to invest directly or via LICs which have a closed pool of capital.