Happy New Year everyone, and welcome to our latest performance update.
I’m really pleased to report that we’ve had a strong start to the 2022
financial year, delivering positive returns to members. For the six months to
31 December 2021, AustralianSuper’s Balanced option returned 4.98% in
accumulation and 5.29% in Choice Income accounts.
While listed shares have been a star performer, the contributions to the
Fund’s performance over the past six months, have been across many of the asset
classes in the portfolio, especially among private markets. Private equity,
infrastructure, property and credit have all provided valuable contributions to
the overall return of the portfolio.
The recovery of economies around the world has helped lift investment
markets, especially Australian and international shares. Recovering consumer
demand, low interest rates and government stimulus have helped support strong
earnings growth for many companies, leading to higher share prices. We’re now
seeing labour shortages and supply chain breakdowns that introduce some
volatility to the markets as investors try to work out when central banks might
make changes interest rates to manage inflation.
As investment markets move through different stages, we maintain our
focus on delivering strong long term returns for members. In line with this,
the Fund continues to invest in private market assets with strong long-term
growth potential. Recently, we acquired two property assets located in Sydney.
Both are state-of-the-art, logistics development sites. In the infrastructure
portfolio, the addition of Australia Tower Network and an increase in our investment
in WestConnex and Peel Ports in the UK, are delivering value to the portfolio.
The growing size of the Fund means we can invest your super in large scale
assets that have the potential to bring you higher returns as well as support
the growth of our economy.
In looking ahead, investment markets are expected to move out of the
current growth cycle. As this happens, we will continue to monitor and analyse
market conditions and adjust the portfolio accordingly, to protect and grow
your super over the long-term.
If you’d like to know more about our outlook for the economy and
investment markets in the months ahead, visit the investments section of the
AustralianSuper website. You can hear from experts across the Fund share their
views.
Thank you for joining me today.
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