REST Industry Super, one of Australia’s largest superannuation funds with more than $37 billion invested on behalf of members, has performed well in the 12 months to the end of June 2015.
The results underscore REST’s long-term investment focus, with the REST Super Core Strategy, REST’s MySuper investment option, returning 7.57% p.a. to members over a seven-year period and 7.82% p.a. over a 10-year period. REST Pension Balanced investment option, designed for members in or near retirement, delivered 7.83% p.a. over seven years and 7.66 % p.a. over 10 years.#
The FY15 investment results for the Core Strategy are expected to show REST Super Core Strategy continues as one of the best-performing MySuper investment options over seven and 10 year timeframes. Its returns were well above REST’s Core Strategy long-term target of CPI plus 3% p.a.
For the full year to 30 June 2015, the REST Super Core Strategy returned 9.47% and the REST Pension Balanced and REST Pension Core Strategy both returned 9.93%. These are strong results compared to our long-term target of CPI plus 3% p.a. for the REST Super and REST Pension Core Strategy options and CPI plus 2% p.a. for the REST Pension Balanced option over the medium term.
REST Industry Super CEO, Damian Hill, said the fund had performed well in a challenging and volatile investment environment, benefiting from key strategic allocation decisions made over the years.
“International equities were our largest weighting and strongest performer in FY15 and this asset class was the largest contributor to our returns for the year. The depreciation of the Australian dollar boosted returns from unhedged international equities, and other asset classes – infrastructure, property, alternative investments and bonds – also contributed,” Mr Hill said.
“We’re particularly pleased with the performance of our flagship REST Super Core Strategy over the long term. We are focused on investing for long-term returns and our members can be reassured by our consistent effort to deliver into the future. That’s a credit to our investment beliefs and the team executing it,” he said.
Mr Hill said steps REST had taken recently to position itself for the current environment and to manage downside risk included:
Trimming allocation to shares in favour of yield-based assets and absolute return investments
Maintaining a bias to overseas shares relative to Australian shares
Maintaining an above-benchmark foreign currency exposure.
“Looking ahead, we expect to see continued uncertainty and volatility in investment markets over the short term. We’ll remain vigilant to downside risk over this period
while positioning our fund to meet its investment objectives over the long term,” Mr Hill said.
Source: REST Industry Super
