our investment performance FY23-24

Title: Our investment performance FY23-24

Debby Blakey: Hello, I’m Debby Blakey, CEO of HESTA.

The last financial year has been marked by resilient financial markets, despite the challenging environment driven by global geopolitical tensions, and closer to home, high interest rates and inflation.

As you know, HESTA invests in and for people who make our world better.

But it’s been a challenging year for our members – health care professionals, aged care workers, early childhood educators and carers, and those working in community services.

Many of them are feeling the weight from higher mortgage repayments or rent, and increasing energy and food bills.

I am deeply aware of the trust our members place in HESTA to help them achieve financial security in retirement, particularly in the face of ongoing cost-of-living pressures.

Super, like all investments, has its ups and downs. But it is so important to remember that investing in super is a long-term strategy, one that plays out over decades, not months or years.

And HESTA has a proud history of delivering strong long-term returns for our members.

Our investment team, led by Sonya Sawtell-Rickson, who you’ll hear from shortly, is focused on remaining agile in the face of changing financial markets.

So whatever the markets deliver you can be assured that HESTA is well placed to deliver our long-term investment objectives ... our Super with impact™ ... to help our more than one million members face the future with confidence.

Sonya Sawtell-Rickson: Thanks, Debby.

I’m pleased to share that HESTA has finished the financial year in a strong position.

Even as cost-of-living pressures persist, this financial year saw inflation continue to ease globally. This suggests a light at the end of the tunnel may be emerging – with some global central banks starting to reduce interest rates in the first half of 2024, and others are expected to follow.

Listed share markets had a stellar financial year, with most major regions delivering double digit performance. US tech companies, in particular, outperformed as investors chased the potential of generative artificial intelligence. This helped support strong investment performance across HESTA’s Ready-Made options.

Our MySuper Balanced Growth option, where the majority of our members are invested, achieved an annual return of 9.10% for the financial year, and remains in the top 10 amongst its peers over 3, 5, and 10 years as measured by independent ratings agency, SuperRatings.

Our Sustainable Growth option delivered 6.98% over the financial year, and remains first in its SuperRatings peer group over the 10-year period.

HESTA’s High Growth option achieved 11.91% for the year, an outstanding top-five SuperRatings result for the year against its peer group, and maintaining its top-five position against peers over the past 10 years.

For our retired members, our Income Stream Balanced Growth option delivered 10.16% for the financial year, while our Income Stream Conservative option delivered 6.03%. Both options are outperforming their median peer over the 3, 5 and 10-year periods.

Our strong returns and high rankings across our investment options relative to peers, shows that HESTA remains a leading fund generating ambitious investment returns, over the long-run, for our valued HESTA members.

I wish to thank our members for trusting HESTA with their retirement savings.