AustralianSuper has increased transparency around the pay and bonuses of senior staff in line with regulation and corporate governance best practice.
Chief investment officer, Mark Delaney, earned the highest out of all executives at the fund. His $971,000 salary, includes base salary and superannuation of $611,000, a bonus payment of $345,963 and long service accrual of $16,150.
He achieved a maximum bonus payment of 60 per cent of his base salary after his team met all three of their performance objectives for the year.
These objectives were a positive return for the MySuper balanced option (13.88 per cent); for this return to be above inflation and for it to be above the median balanced fund in the SuperRatings SR50 survey (12.66 per cent).
The other highly rewarded members of the investment team, as disclosed in AustralianSuper’s 2014 annual report, were Peter Curtis, head of investment operations, who received $580,386; Innes McKeand, head of equities, who received $621,615 and Jason Peasley, head of infrastructure, $577,174.
Ian Silk, chief executive of AustralianSuper, has the highest base pay at the fund, but does not accrue a bonus, his annual salary including superannuation and leave accrual was $697,970.
The fund’s highest paid trustees were Heather Rideout, the chair of the fund, who received a $161,915, while Tim Poole, chair of the investment committee and an independent trustee, received $162,215 – both figures including superannuation.
Stephen McMahon, a spokesman for the fund, said the disclosures in the 2014 annual report were made in more detail than before, in line with new regulations, but also in line with the standard of transparency it expects of the companies it invests in.
The annual report is also revealing for greater portfolio disclosure.
The fund has listed its securities exposure by the country in which each investment is based. This reveals it is underweight the global weighting of all G7 nations except France and that it holds an overweight position in all BRICs countries, with India having the highest overweight position. The MSCI gives Indian companies a 0.77 per cent weighting, but AustralianSuper’s allocation is 4.34 per cent.
By sector, the report reveals a strong bet on the growth of online retailers. AustralianSuper’s three biggest international share holdings are with Amazon, Tencent and Baidu.
By asset allocation, AustralianSuper in common with many other funds, has tilted away from Australian equities and into international equities, its domestic holdings falling to 29 per cent and its overseas equities rising close to 32 per cent.
Its largest international equity managers are MFS Institutional Advisors, which manages $3.2 billion and Baillie Gifford, which manages $3 billion. Assets in the total fund have risen from $69 billion to $78 billion.
Is now the time to cup my hands in the shape of the Industry Super Logo?