Investments

Hi everyone and welcome to our latest performance update. 

The past twelve months have been extraordinary for many reasons, but most importantly for members, the Balanced option has delivered exceptional returns - 20.43% in Accumulation and 22.30% in Choice Income accounts. 

This means a significant boost to member balances. 

From the 1st of July 2020 to the 30th of June 2021, investment markets rebounded from the impacts of COVID-19.

Governments and central banks all around the world, responded to the pandemic with extraordinary fiscal and monetary programs to support their economies.

These programs, along with the global roll-out of vaccines, helped to revive consumer and business confidence, providing an extraordinary boost to investment markets – especially for Australian and international shares.

In the past year, Australian shares have risen over 27%, led by consumer spending on discretionary items, and the financial sector as well as some technology companies.  

International shares also delivered returns of over 27% in Australian dollar terms, with similar returns from both developed and emerging markets.  

Once again, these results highlight that investment markets recover after downturns. This is why it’s so important for members to see super as a long-term investment, and to seek advice before making changes when markets are volatile. 

The AustralianSuper investment portfolio is diversified across several asset classes and our performance and returns have been broad, coming across most areas of the portfolio. 

The returns from listed shares and private equity helped to deliver the outstanding performance of the Balanced option. Listed equities performed over 27% for the year and the private equity portfolio returned over 30% for the year.    

Our investments in mid risk asset classes like infrastructure and credit also contributed with returns over 10% for the year.  

Fixed interest assets also played their role, providing portfolio stability, while also outperforming their benchmarks. 

These assets all contributed to the phenomenal 20.43% return on the Balanced option.

This result is especially significant for members. It’s the best financial year return for the Balanced option since it started in August 1985, almost 36 years ago.  

We are so proud to deliver such strong and consistent returns for AustralianSuper members.  The Balanced option continues to be a top performing fund.

At the end of June this year, the 15-year performance of the Balanced option was 7.49% per annum after tax.

This means that $50,000 invested 15 years ago would now be worth $147,859 - nearly triple the initial balance 15 years ago.

These results highlight the importance of experience in navigating volatile markets. The Fund’s expertise in investing through market cycles helps protect and grow member balances.   

So … where to from here - for the economy and investment markets?

As we look to the longer term, investment markets are expected to move out of the current growth cycle.

To explain what this means, we’ve assembled specialists from across the Fund, including our Global Economist Mark Tierney, in our latest Investment Update webinar. You can view the webinar free of charge on our website. 

Thank you for joining us today.  

As always, if you have any questions, please call or email us. Or find us at AustralianSuper.com.