Annual Report
Our Annual Reports describe how the Fund has performed relative to its benchmarks and break down how our active investments have added value over the year.
Kia ora koutou.
Through our Guardians of the Future strategy, we are building on what has made us successful, while developing the tools, technology and capabilities to prepare for the future.
As the NZ Super Fund continues to grow, we need the way that we work to be scalable for managing a fund that will soon be much larger.
The Fund delivered a strong return of 14.17% this year. This is well above both the 90-day Treasury Bill return and our long-term performance expectation.
Fund returns were 0.1% below our Reference Portfolio benchmark. Given the continued outperformance of global equity markets, we are very pleased with this result.
Diversification remains central to our approach. It helps us maximise returns over the long term while managing risk across the Fund.
Since inception, the Fund has delivered over $22 billion dollars more than a passive investor with the same risk appetite would have earned.
Preparing for the future includes having the right technology to make informed investment decisions.
This year we delivered our multi-year Investment Data and Analytics Programme and moved our data and models to a modern, cloud-based platform. We also focused on how AI can help us work more effectively. While there is still much to be done, we have made significant progress in these areas over the past year.
This year we restructured our People and Culture and Investment teams. We have aimed to set up our People and Culture team to better support the broader organisation, with more clearly defined roles and lines of communication. Our Investment team is now organised around asset classes. This makes it easier to assess competing opportunities and implement our total portfolio approach.
We also welcomed Leona Cheffins as General Manager, People and Culture. Her appointment means we now have a full Leadership Team, and I am thrilled to have Leona on board.
Over the next year, we will remain focused on embedding our new team structures and strengthening our processes, technology and investment approach.
Earlier this year, Global SWF once again ranked the NZ Super Fund as the world’s top-performing sovereign wealth fund over the past 20 years. My aim as CEO is to put in place the structure and systems that will help us maintain this world-class performance.
One of our greatest strengths is our people. I would like to thank the entire Guardians team for all their work over the past year, and their ongoing commitment to achieving our purpose: Sustainable investment delivering strong returns for all New Zealanders.
Annual Report 2025/26
Annual Reports include a Statement of Performance, which sets out how we performed against the strategic objectives set out in our Statement of Intent and annual Statement of Performance Expectations.
They also include a detailed overview of our governance and risk management processes, a dedicated responsible investment report, and a list of the external managers and custodians we used during the year. Annual Reports cover the year ended 30 June and are usually published the following October.
As part of our commitment to best practice disclosure we index our reports against the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) criteria.
We welcome feedback on our reports, send it to [email protected]