How did Australia’s largest super funds fare in FY23–24?

Following a flurry of fund results in recent weeks, Super Review has looked back at how some of Australia’s largest funds fared in the last financial year. 

AustralianSuper

The country’s largest fund, AustralianSuper, reported a “solid” return of 8.46 per cent from its balanced option for the financial year 2024, bolstered by strong performances from share markets.

While the $335 billion fund slightly lagged some of its mega fund counterparts, Mark Delaney, AustralianSuper chief investment officer, said it was a “pleasing” result all round, particularly as the fund was more defensively positioned up until December 2023.

Meanwhile, its retirement option Choice Income saw an annual return of 9.25 per cent in the balanced option.

Colonial First State (CFS)

For Australian super funds managing over $100 billion in assets, CFS led the way in default investment option returns for the financial year 2023–24.

Its FirstChoice Employer Super balanced fund (MySuper Lifestage 1965–69) delivered a 12.1 per cent return, while the FirstChoice Employer Super growth fund (MySuper Lifestage 1975–79) delivered a 14.3 per cent return.

CFS, which holds nearly $150 billion in funds under administration, said the strong investment performance had largely been driven by strong returns in global and domestic equities, additionally noting its “relatively unique” position of holding no legacy unlisted assets.

AMP

AMP followed closely, reporting a return of 11.14 per cent for members of its AMP MySuper 1970s superannuation fund option. The option, its largest by funds under management, uses a high-growth asset allocation.

Its MySuper 1980s and 1990s members, too, benefited from a high-growth allocation, notching returns of 11.31 per cent for the financial year.

“From December to June, our portfolios had a tactical overweight to US equities which saw strong returns as our funds continued to outperform their benchmarks,” said Anna Shelley, chief investment officer at AMP.

Aware Super

Managing over $150 billion in assets, Aware Super secured an 11.02 per cent return for its High Growth accumulation option for the financial year 2024. As the default option for members under the age of 55, over 750,000 of the fund’s 1.1 million members are invested in this option.

Meanwhile, Aware Super’s core option for members in the retirement phase, the Conservative Balanced pension option, returned 7.66 per cent for the financial year.

Australian Retirement Trust (ART)

ART, whose funds under management recently surpassed $300 billion, announced its balanced option delivered a return just shy of double digits at 9.9 per cent over the year.

ART’s High Growth option, now the default offering for members under the age of 50, delivered its second consecutive year of double-digit returns at 11.3 per cent.

Similarly to its counterparts, ART’s head of investment strategy Andrew Fisher said that equity returns, particularly from global markets, were the “biggest single” driver of growth over the past year.

MLC 

The fund posted a return of 9.8 per cent for its MySuper Growth Portfolio, the default option for members under the age of 55.

MLC’s MySuper Conservative Balanced Portfolio, for members between 55 and 65 years of age, returned 7.7 per cent, and its MySuper Cash Portfolio, for members over 65, returned 3.9 per cent.

Broadly, Steve Gamerov, head of diversified portfolios at MLC Asset Management, credited the strong result to significant international stocks exposures, particularly in US markets.

UniSuper

The $135 billion fund delivered a 9.2 per cent return from its default MySuper balanced option in the last financial year.

According to UniSuper’s chief investment officer, John Pearce, investing in the Indian and Japanese markets contributed to its strong FY23–24 result, alongside an overweight position in technology.

“We had a nice weighting, which is overweight to tech, overweight to Japan, and overweight to India, so they’re the three things that worked in our favour,” he explained.

Hostplus

Hostplus rounded out the group with a 7.60 per cent return from its MySuper Balanced Option. According to the $100 billion fund, challenging economic conditions were persistent over the past 12 months and the fund took a more defensive position to listed markets in its default option.

“Saving for retirement is a marathon, not a sprint, which is why we are focused on seeking to deliver sustained performance over those longer investment horizons,” said Hostplus CEO David Elia.

However, it observed a “particularly strong” performance from its passive indexed investments, with its Indexed Balanced option returning 12.18 per cent over the year.