Challenger Limited (CGF) Earnings Call Transcript

Welcome, everybody, to Challenger's 2021 full year results. [Operator Instructions] Thank you again for joining us today. I'll hand over to our first speaker, Stu Kingham, Head, Investor Relations at Challenger.

Good morning, and welcome to joining us online for Challenger's 2021 full year results briefing. In a moment, I'll ask Richard Howes, Challenger's Chief Executive Officer, to open today's session, and that will be followed by an update from Rachel Grimes, our CFO. The presentation will be followed by a question-and-answer session. I'll now hand over to Richard to get us underway.

Thanks very much, Stuart, and good morning, everyone, and welcome to Challenger's full year results for 2021. Thank you for joining us today. It's obviously pleasing to have so many of you online given the current situation. Before we get into the results, though, I'd like to address this morning's announcement that I've decided that now is the right time to step down. And so I've notified the Board of my intention to leave the business in March next year. I suppose my goal was always to leave Challenger in a strong position with solid foundations that would help ensure its continued growth and success. And I'm pleased to say that we've achieved this goal, and today's update will demonstrate that Challenger as a business is in very good shape. We now have a strong balance sheet and sustainable capital settings, diverse revenue sources and a compelling strategy for the future. Our Life and Funds Management businesses are leaders in their respective markets, and the recently acquired banks will further strengthen our offering. And underpinning all of this is our highly capable and motivated team. I'm proud of what we've achieved at Challenger over the last 18 years. And with the business primed for its next phase of growth, it feels like the right time for me to make this change. I'm also pleased that Chris Plater has been appointed to Deputy CEO. This role will support leadership continuity as we enter the next phase of growth and reflects Chris' important contribution as Chair of the Life Investment Committee and leader of the group's operations and technology functions. For now, I remain very energized as ever about leading this fantastic team and business. And so with that, I'll move on to our program for today. And first up, I'll take you through an overview of the FY '21 -- an overview of FY '21 and our business momentum before handing over to Rachel Grimes, our CFO, who many of you have met in recent months, to provide more detail on our financial performance. Then I'll finish with some final comments on our financial outlook, our refreshed corporate strategy and our priorities and finish with some Q&A at the end of that. Okay. So reflecting on FY '21. We finished the year with strong outcomes across a broad range of metrics. Normalized profit is in line with guidance and well positioned to drive significant growth in FY '22 and beyond. Last year, we took decisive action to position our business for the future, continuing to execute on our diversification strategy, repositioning our investment portfolio and strengthening balance sheet settings. Today's results highlight the outworking of this approach. Our diversification strategy has delivered record sales across both our Life and Funds Management businesses and provides a very strong base for future earnings growth. Through our refreshed corporate strategy, we have a clear plan to capture opportunities. The acquisition of MyLife My Finance Bank is an important component of our strategy, which will further broaden our business and accelerate efforts to build relationships directly with clients. We've entered FY '22 in very good shape and well positioned with significant profit growth. Today's result is in line with our Investor Day update and highlights the strong momentum across our businesses. Throughout 2021, we continued to deliver on our purpose to provide our customers with financial security for a better retirement. Normalized profit for the end -- for the year was within guidance range set at the start of the year and reflected the proactive decision to reposition our investment portfolio. Throughout the year, we've gradually deployed our significant cash and liquid balances into higher-returning assets with the full benefits of this to be realized next year. Now later in the presentation, Rachel will discuss the repositioned portfolio in some more detail. Statutory net profit after tax included over $500 million of investment market gains. This reflects the reversal of the unrealized market losses we experienced during the pandemic sell-off in 2020. Both our Life and Funds Management businesses delivered standout growth. Challenger Life achieved record sales of $7 billion as well as strong growth in investment assets, which were up 18%. Funds Management also continued its strong growth trajectory with FUM increasing by more than 30% and has really strong momentum going into the new year. And pleasingly, our acquisition of MyLife MyFinance, the bank, has now completed, providing Challenger with an accelerated entry into the significant term deposit market. As I'll outline today, our refreshed corporate strategy provides a clear plan for long-term growth and a pathway to achieving a sustainable return on equity, in line with our target, being 12% above the RBA cash rate. Before we cover our business' performance in more detail, it would be remiss of me not to highlight the significant impact that the pandemic is having on the community and the actions we're taking to support our clients, our customers and our employees. The current uncertainty demonstrates the benefits to retirees of having a guaranteed annuity as part of their retirement strategy. We continue to receive regular customer feedback about the peace of mind that this regular,, secure income provides in these difficult times. And I'm also proud that thanks to our great team, there's been no disruption to the service we provide our customers. So I'd like to thank all our employees who demonstrated their commitment and flexibility in adapting to these new ways of working. Focusing first on our Life business, which delivered strong sales and book growth in FY '21. Total Life sales reached a record $6.9 billion, up 35% on last year, underlying the success of our strategy to diversify our product offering and diversify our distributions. Following the significant disruption in the wealth management industry, we've really focused on building relationships with independent financial advisers and in driving more direct sales. Pleasingly, this approach, along with the gradual stabilizing of the advice market, has delivered strong growth in the retail segment, which was actually up 19% for the period. This outcome also reflects our quality customer offering. So we achieved a high customer satisfaction level with 91%. Institutional sales were incredibly strong in Life with growth of 53% over the year. Pursuant to our diversification strategy, we're focused on building relationships with a wide range of institutional clients, including profit-for-member funds, insurance companies and multi-managers. And as a result, our institutional client base has more than doubled over the last 5 years. I want to specifically highlight our progress in building relationships with profit-for-member funds, where assets under management grew by an exceptional 125% this year. We see a real opportunity to drive further growth in this area as funds increase their focus on providing more solutions for their members specific to their retirement phase. In Japan, our relationship with MS Primary continues to deliver strong results with annuity sales of around AUD 800 million. Once again, this exceeded our minimum target this year by more than 18%. By executing our strategy, we've built a diversified Life business, serving retail and institutional clients and customers with a wide range of products designed to deliver better retirement outcomes. This approach has been instrumental in delivering record annuity and other Life product sales, which in turn have driven book growth of 14% over the year. Turning now to the Funds Management business, which has been a standout performer among its peers and has many avenues for ongoing organic growth. Challenger is Australia's third largest and one of the fastest-growing active fund managers. Last year, Funds Management FUM grew by 30% to $106 billion. This exceptional growth was driven by record net flows of $16 billion, which represents 20% of opening FUM. Our multi-boutique business, Fidante Partners, was also the #1 active manager for retail net flows in Australia. Key drivers of this growth are our diversified client base and our broad product offering. Across both retail and institutional, we have a reputation for our strong distribution capabilities and for the quality of our products. In institutional markets, this is evidenced by the fact that our clients include 45 out of the top 50 Australian super funds. While in retail, we were awarded Distributor of the Year by Zenith Partners, a much coveted acknowledgment of the strength of our distribution in retail. Fidante has a proven track record of achieving superior investment performance as well, and 2021 was no exception. 92% of FUM is outperforming the benchmark over 3 years. Fidante is also focused on expanding into offshore markets in cases where there's a right market structure, where we can build the right sales capability and where we can offer high-quality and suitable products for those markets. Earlier this year, we opened an office in Singapore, which will provide a distribution hub to access investors across Asia in much the same way as our London office is a distribution hub into Europe. CIP Asset Management also continues to perform strongly, maintaining, for example, its position as a market leader in domestic private lending with the launch of a number of funds for institutional and sophisticated investors throughout the year. So on to the bank. I'm really pleased to say that the acquisition of MyLife MyFinance has now been approved by APRA and the transaction has completed. The bank is a key pillar in the next phase of growth for Challenger and represents an exciting opportunity for both our business and for our customers. Challenger is now well placed to increase the role we play in supporting retirement outcomes, extending our distribution channels and diversifying our product offering. We now have a highly scalable digital banking platform to provide government-guaranteed term deposits, which are, of course, a simple product used by retirees and, importantly, also by those approaching retirement. At around $700 billion, the term deposit market represents a significant opportunity for us. In addition, over time, we expect to develop further innovative products which will be, of course, linked to our retirement purpose. The bank also accelerates our plans to build relationships directly with customers and complement our other well-established distribution channels, which include financial advisers and institutional clients. Work is now underway to integrate the bank into our business. We're focused on building an early momentum through distribution partnerships, and we've already received strong inbound interest from our network of institutional clients. As I mentioned earlier, we now have a clear plan for long-term growth with a sustainable return on equity target. Earlier this year, we updated our ROE target to be the RBA cash rate plus 12%. This reflects our focus on earning appropriate risk-adjusted return for our shareholders. In FY '21, as we previously guided, our more defensive portfolio and our enhanced risk settings, along with the high levels of cash and liquids, which were progressively deployed throughout the year, of around 11.2%. With that deployment now complete, we're well positioned to move back in line with our group target, being our group target ROE, being cash plus 12%. Importantly, we can achieve this target despite the tight investment environment. For FY '22, as you can see, the midpoint of our guidance range demonstrates this. Ultimately, as investment conditions improve, higher ROE outcomes would be achievable in the future. So taking a step back, we're in a great position. Our Life and Funds Management businesses are leaders in their respective markets and are performing strongly. Our new bank will see further extend this success both in terms of our product and our distribution. We're well positioned to move back in line with our ROE target, and our business is underpinned by strong balance sheet and capital settings. This is all in service of our clear purpose and in pursuit of our strategy, which I'll discuss after Rachel runs through the financials. So that concludes the first part of my presentation, and I'll pass to Rachel to provide more detail on today's numbers.

Thank you, Richard. Good morning, everyone. It's great to be here today for my first Challenger results briefing, and I'd like to start by calling out the whole Challenger team and thank them who got us here to this point today. As you've already heard from Richard, our full year financial results showed strength and momentum, demonstrated by record sales growth in both Life and Funds Management flows. Normalized net profit was in line with our guidance range and our expectations. Statutory profit reflects the full reversal of unrealized market losses from last year's pandemic sell-off. Asset growth has been very strong, and we are well placed as we head into the first half of 2022. Now looking at the results in detail. Normalized net profit before tax was $396 million and within our $390 million to $440 million guidance range set at the start of the financial year. Normalized profit reflects the significant changes to the investment portfolio made in the second half of last year in response to the pandemic. These portfolio changes reduced exposure to growth assets as we increased cash and liquidity whilst reducing capital intensity. This did significantly impact Life's margin, and I'll take you through the movement in Life's margin in detail later this morning. Reflecting this, Challenger's total income fell by 14%. Expenses continue to be well controlled and fell 1% for the year. Group EBIT fell by 22% with Life down by 24% and Funds Management up by 23%. And I'll take you through the business line performance in detail shortly. Interest and borrowing costs reduced following full repayment of group debt throughout the year. Normalized NPAT was $279 million and was down 19%. Investment experience was very significant at over $300 million post tax with the reversal of the unrealized market losses from last year. Significant items were $5 million and relate to transaction costs from our recent MyLife MyFinance Bank acquisition and the closure of the Fidante boutique. With the strong investment experience outcome, statutory net profit after tax was $592 million for the year, a notable turnaround on last year and the highest on record. As mentioned by Richard, there is very strong momentum in both our businesses. Group AUM rose by 29% for the year, and closing AUM was well above the average for both Life and Funds Management, providing real impetus for 2022. Firstly, looking at investment experience in more detail. As you are aware, we are required to record all assets and liabilities back in the Life business to market value. As a result of the investment market sell-off in the second half of last year, there were significant unrealized investment experience losses. This year, those unrealized losses have fully reversed, and we have recorded asset gains totaling $542 million. We have recorded positive investment experience across all asset classes. For fixed income, credit spreads have tightened and are back to prepandemic levels, resulting in the unrealized investment losses fully reversing. With no major credit defaults in the period, we recorded $383 million of investment experience gains on the fixed income portfolio. For properties, the $55 million of positive investment experience reflects valuation gains exceeding our 2% annual growth assumption. All properties were subject to independent valuations in June, and I'll provide details on the valuation movements by segment in a moment. The equity and other infrastructure gains were $57 million and with gains across both portfolios. The alternative portfolio consists of absolute return funds and general and life insurance exposures and posted a gain of $47 million driven by strong performance in the absolute return portfolio. The policy liabilities, which are also mark-to-market, the valuation impact was an $87 million loss and reflects 2 things: firstly, $183 million illiquidity premium loss, which is simply a noncash item from using a lower discount rate to value policy liabilities; and secondly, a gain of $96 million on policy liabilities from inflation-linked and semi-government securities held for hedging purposes. Overall, we reported a pretax investment experience profit of $455 million for the year. Turning to the Life financial performance in more detail. As Richard mentioned, the success of our diversification strategy resulted in record Life sales of $7 billion, driving strong liability and asset growth. Assets under management increased by 18%. However, the average increased by only 3% due to the timing of the market sell-off and subsequent recovery and strong book growth achieved in the second half of the year. The portfolio was repositioned during the early stages of the pandemic, reducing exposure to growth assets with a commensurate increase in cash holdings. This pushed Life margin down 72 basis points to 2.6% with 2/3 of the reduction simply being lower assumed normalized growth. With a stable investment portfolio mix carried into the second half, this impact was not repeated, and we started to realize the benefit of redeploying higher cash levels. The second half margin increased 10 basis points from the first half. Expenses across the year were stable. However, Life expenses in the second half increased by $12 million on the first half and included some one-off costs and timing impact. With lower income and stable expenses, Life EBIT was $399 million and was 24% below last year. Pleasingly, second half EBIT was 7% higher than the first half, benefiting from business growth and an improved margin. As Richard mentioned, sales are benefiting from our diversification strategy, and we recorded sales growth across all key categories. In retail, with adviser disruption stabilizing and strong growth across the IFA channel and emerging adviser group, retail sales for the year increased by 19%. Pleasingly, we also saw a 10% increase in the second half despite seasonal impacts, with the third quarter traditionally being lower due to the Christmas holiday period. As previously announced, in response to the tighter credit spread environment, we have continued to respond through annuity pricing. These initiatives have had little impacts on the demand for our products and will provide margin support in future periods. We are seeing significant growth in the institutional channel, both from the product refresh Angela Murphy, our CEO of Life, outlined at our Investor Day in June and from attracting new clients, particularly in the profit-for-member sector. We are also seeing very strong growth in institutional term annuities, a relatively new focus area for us, with sales of $1.5 billion this year, up nearly $1 billion. We are not, at this stage, seeing a significant impact on sales from COVID-19 pandemic. Advisers have already moved to interacting with their clients online, and the investment teams at large superannuation funds and institutional clients have not been significantly impacted. In Japan, annuity sales were $790 million and exceeded our full year target by 18%. As expected, the quota share reduced in the second half after a very strong start to the year. With this exceptional sales outcome, coupled with maturities that were lower than last year despite the larger book, book growth was 14.4% for the year. Annuity book growth was 8.6%, and 5.8% was achieved from the institutional Index Plus business. Notably, the strong second half performance contributed 10% of the 14% growth, which will help support our earnings growth in FY '22. Now looking at the asset -- now looking at the liability and asset portfolio. Liabilities increased by 15% this year with all key categories increasing. With the exceptional growth in our institutional franchise, Index Plus liabilities increased by 50% and now represent 21% of total liabilities. Institutional growth benefited from not only strong new business sales but also consistently high reinvestment rate for maturities. Demonstrating the compelling product proposition for clients, 91% of Index Plus maturities were reinvested. Term annuity liabilities benefited from diversification of our product offering into institutional term business. Lifetime annuity liabilities, which also includes the Japanese business as it is classified as insurance business, grew by 18% and benefited from its longer maturity profile. As previously mentioned, average investment assets increased by 3%. However, with strong second half sales, closing investment assets were 9% higher than the average. We maintain a high-quality investment portfolio focused on providing stable and steady income to allow us to meet our annuity obligations. The portfolio remains in good shape. A key observation is that there has been no material change to the asset allocation over the year, and we don't expect any significant change in the year ahead. Within fixed income, we have been gradually deploying cash and liquid investments predominantly into higher-yielding fixed income investments. This will benefit future margins. We've now completed our deployment plan, and with gradual deployment over the year, cash investments reduced from 16% of the total investment portfolio to 6%. Fixed income investment grade was 79% and remains above our target of 75%. Credit performance remained very resilient and, in fact, was positive 13 basis points for the year as we wrote back credits we expect to default in the early stages of the pandemic. We have a very limited watch list and are very comfortable with how the fixed income portfolio is positioned. We continue to maintain a defensive property portfolio with 1/3 of rental income contracted from the government and occupancy rates remaining stable at around 92%. With all properties independently valued, office increased by 5.9%, aided by the revaluation of 1 asset recognized ahead of the scheduled sale later this financial year. Within the retail portfolio, which consists of neighborhood shopping centers, following the 8% reduction last year, valuations reduced slightly, down 0.2% this year, supported by foot traffic metrics returning to pre-COVID levels. Whilst property valuations have improved this year, with the ongoing nature of the pandemic and evolving restrictions and economic impacts, we will continue to work with our tenants to support them. Our profit guidance range for FY '22 includes a reduced rental expectation as a result of the ongoing pandemic. The alternatives, equities and infrastructure asset categories both increased, reflecting valuation gains and growth in investment assets. Alternatives represent 5% of the portfolio, and equities and infrastructure represent 3%. It's a high-quality portfolio delivering reliable and stable income, and we do not expect any substantial change to the asset allocation over the year ahead. Now turning to Life margin trends, which reflects the move to a more defensive portfolio during the early stages of the pandemic. As shown on the chart on the left-hand side, the key movements in average investment assets year-on-year were: a 7 percentage point reduction in average growth assets, a 4 percentage point reduction in average sub-investment-grade fixed income and an 11 percentage point increase in average cash and investment-grade fixed income. The reduction in growth assets has had a significant impact on normalized growth as they attract assumed growth rates of up to 4% per year compared to a negative 35 basis point credit default allowance for fixed income. As you can see from the chart on the right-hand side, this change in asset mix and lower growth assumptions accounted for 45 basis points or 2/3 of the 72 basis points decline in Life's margin. Lower interest rates on shareholder capital was the next largest item, accounting for 13 basis points. Shareholder capital is not hedged for interest rates with average rates reducing by 65 basis points last year, 25 basis points this year. The product spread being the investment return on policyholder assets less the cost of funds declined by only 9 basis points. This reduction reflects the tighter credit spread environment and investment in institutional relationships. Importantly, as previously mentioned, we have responded to the tighter spread environment through annuity pricing initiatives. Lower Life risk income accounted for the final 5 basis points and, you'll recall last year, included a $10 million or 5 basis points one-off fee in relation to the early termination of a wholesale longevity contract. Our Life risk portfolio continues to perform strongly. The present value of future profits increased by 26% this year from a revision in higher-than-expected future mortality rates, which will support Life's risk revenue growth. Now looking at the second half margin trends and long-term trends. Life's cash operating earnings margin was 2.65% in the second half and increased by 10 basis points from the first half. The second half benefited from a one-off early repayment of an asset-backed security. Looking at the longer-term trends, you can see the reduction in Life's margin is due to: one, normalized -- lower normalized growth; and secondly, lower return on shareholder capital. Lower normalized growth is largely a result of the changes to asset allocation and composition changes within each asset class. Importantly, flows are expected to be stable as we head into the next financial year. Lower return on shareholder capital reflects lower interest rates. Interest rates have reduced from 200 basis points in the first half of 2019, 25 basis points in the second half of '20, which is below current rates. With the benefit of the early repayment of the asset-backed securities, the product spread remains stable. Turning now to capital. Challenger Life Company's position remains strong with $1.6 billion in excess regulatory capital, up $65 million for the year. The movement for the year reflects the $710 million increase in regulatory capital, partially offset by a $650 million increase in the capital requirement, regulatory capital increase from higher retained earnings, the release of capital from our U.K. Life risk business and an increase in alternative Tier 1 capital. It is also worth noting during the year, we paid a one-off $100 million distribution from the Life Company to group to fund the acquisition of MyLife MyFinance and support its initial growth phase. The Life risk capital release of $200 million relates to the restructure of 2 wholesale longevity transactions in our Life business. The restructuring capital release can be thought of as an upfront payment of future expected cash flows. The increase in regulatory capital also includes an additional $68 million from alternative Tier 1 capital. It is generally our intention to repurchase hybrid notes and not allow them to convert into equity. This year, we replaced the original capital notes issued in 2014 with the new instruments, resulting in a net increase in alternative Tier 1 equity. The regulatory capital requirement increased by $646 million, which is due to both growth in the investment portfolio and an increase in capital intensity. As you can see from the chart on the right-hand side, capital intensity increased from 10.7% on investment assets to 12.1% as a result of deploying our higher levels of cash into fixed income, equities and alternatives. Looking at CLC's capital ratios, consistent with our planned actions to deploy excess cash during the period, the PCA and CET1 ratios both fell over the year. Consistent with our plan to gradually deploy cash and liquids over the year, the PCA ratio declined from 1.81x to 1.63x. However, the average PCA ratio through the period was higher at 1.67x following our decision to enhance our capital settings. As we head into FY '22, we're extending our PCA ratio range to 1.3x to 1.7x with a target operating level of 1.6x, and we are currently above this target. The financial strength of the business is demonstrated by Standard & Poor's A credit rating of Challenger Life with a stable outlook reaffirmed in November. In addition to Life's $1.6 billion of excess capital, we also held over $200 million of cash outside of the Life Company, providing additional financial flexibility. Now turning to Funds Management. These are also record results and very impressive ones. Funds under management growth was exceptional, up 30% to over $100 billion. Average FUM increased by 15% and FUM-based income increased by 16% with an expansion in the FUM-based margins, which I will cover in a moment. Income quality improved with a higher proportion of FUM-based income. However, total net income increased by 7%, less than the increase in average FUM, with performance and transaction fees down $10 million. Expense control was strong, down 2%. With the operating leverage this business enjoys, EBIT increased by 23%. Looking more closely at net flows and Fidante Partners' investment performance. Funds Management achieved record net flows of $16 billion, representing 20% of opening period FUM, making Fidante funds management one of the fastest-growing active managers in the country. Fidante Partners' net flows were $14.3 billion for the year, up significantly on last year and are benefiting from a diversified product and client base. Net flows were dominated by fixed income, accounting for 77% net flows and 21% derived from equity products. Underpinning exceptional net flows is the continuation of Fidante's superior investment performance. Since inception, 91% of the fund has outperformed benchmarks, and 84% of funds have achieved first- or second-quartile performance. Now looking at Funds Management margins and FUM growth. Reflecting our focus on improving the quality of income and transitioning to a more FUM-based earnings model, performance and transaction fees fell by $9 million. As a result of the lower performance in transaction fees, the total income margin was 18.3 basis points and fell by 1.3 basis points for the year. Against broader industry trends, the FUM-based income margin expanded. The contribution from higher-margin retail business more than offset the impact of a change in mix. You can see from the chart that the FUM-based margin has been increasing over the last -- over the past 3 years as we remix FUM and grow our retail franchise. Growth in funds under management was outstanding, up 30% and with 2/3 of the growth coming from net flows. FUM increased in all but 1 boutique, and 3 boutiques experienced FUM breaking through $10 billion for the first time. Closing funds under management was 14% higher than the average for the year, providing significant earnings momentum as we head into FY '22. Underscoring confidence in our business, the Board resumed paying dividends after pausing in the early stages of the pandemic. The final dividend declared was $0.105 per share and will be paid in September, bringing the full year dividend to $0.20 per share, up 14% on last year. The normalized dividend payout ratio was 48.2%, in line with our target. So in conclusion, our results today are in line with expectations set at the start of the period. They reflect the decisive action to position the business for the future, driving our diversification strategy, repositioning the investment portfolio and strengthening our capital position. As we head into the 2022 financial year, the investment portfolio asset mix is expected to remain stable as are our capital settings and margins. This provides a strong platform to translate book growth into earnings growth. I'll now hand back to Richard for his comments on strategy and outlook before rejoining the call for the Q&A session.

Thanks very much, Rachel. Looking ahead, I'm very optimistic about Challenger's future. We've emerged from a period of significant disruption in very good shape. Our differentiated product offering, diversified distribution strategy and strong balance sheet settings see us well positioned to deliver solid earnings into FY '22 and beyond. All of this translates into an expectation of profit growth for FY '22 with normalized net profit before tax expected to be within a range of $430 million to $480 million. We currently expect to land on the midpoint of that range, noting that we provide a range to reflect a number of moving parts that can impact this outcome. Achieving the midpoint, around $455 million, which represents a 15% increase on FY '21, would see us achieve our normalized ROE target being 12% above the RBA cash rate. We expect Life's cash operating earnings margin to remain stable at around 2.5%. We will continue to maintain a strong capital position in FY '22, noting that our target is to operate at around 1.6x the potential capital amount. On the dividend, we will continue to target a payout ratio of between 45% and 50% of normalized net profit after tax, which reflects confidence in the business. As we enter 2022, we're particularly well placed to capture growth from the long-term tailwind that have propelled our business for many years. We're Australia's #1 provider of guaranteed income stream, and our Funds Management business is the third largest active fund manager in the country. The acquisition of MyLife MyFinance will further expand the ways that we reach our customers and the ways in which we serve them. Australia's world-class superannuation system continues to grow rapidly and is expected to eclipse $7 trillion over the next 15 years. Baby boomers are moving into the next phase of their lives and are enjoying retirement. And more widely, retirees are living longer, healthier lives. The nature of our market-leading position in both Life and Funds Management uniquely positions Challenger to benefit from these tailwinds. From a regulatory perspective, the government has been progressing reforms to enhance the retirement phase of the super system and the retirement income covenant represents a very significant and important part of this process. The covenant will significantly extend the existing obligations of super fund trustees to ensure that the system works as well for Australians in retirement as it does in existing that accumulate for retirement. When the covenant comes into force from 1 July next year, funds will be required to develop and to give effect to, that is implement, a retirement income strategy specifically for their members in the retirement phase. Trustees will need to develop, well, trustees will need to balance 3 objectives in this regard, to maximize retirement income, to manage risks to the sustainability and stability of retirement income including longevity risk and to allow for flexibility. This will see members given access to a much wider range of choices in retirement than at present, helping them convert their super savings into an income to see them through their retirement. We're already working with funds who are seeking to address the needs of their members in retirement, and we expect this to become an increasing focus of super funds as required by the covenant. As I've outlined, regulatory reform, along with the market and demographic tailwinds provide a significant opportunity for our business. We have the strongest retirement income brand. We have a differentiated product offering uniquely able to address the retirement risks. We have an excellent customer experience and a leading distribution capability across both the retail and institutional segments. Now you may remember this slide from our recent Investor Strategy Day. Our refreshed corporate strategy illustrates a clear path forward, where we will build on our strong foundation and drive long-term sustainable growth. At the center of this strategy are our vision statements for each of our key stakeholder groups, describing our ambitions for the business and how we will deliver on our purpose of providing financial security for a better retirement. Now this includes an exciting customer vision to provide 1 in 5 Australian retirees with improved financial outcomes as consumers of Challenger's products by the end of the decade. I believe this is absolutely achievable, and we have the right strategy in place to get us there. For the community, we will champion financial security for retirement, providing financial health and education, advocating for constructive public policies and leading by example with responsible business practices. And for our shareholders, we will leverage the combined capabilities of the group to build resilient long-term value. Finally, but by no means least, we will bring together a diverse group of talented employees who share a commitment to fulfilling our purpose. We begin FY '22 with a clear plan and defined strategic priorities and actions to drive the next phase of our growth. Firstly, we will focus on being available to customers through a broad range of distribution channels. With the bank transaction now complete, we will focus on establishing relationships directly with a wider range of customers, aiming to quickly build momentum and build our term deposit book. In the Life business, the key focus will be building on the significant progress we made last year by expanding and strengthening relationships with our institutional clients as we strive towards our vision of being the partner of choice. And in Funds Management, we will leverage our offshore offices to attract new clients. Our second focus area is expanding on the range of products we offer to support better outcomes in retirement. In Funds Management, we will build on momentum in our new boutique, Ox Capital, and our new partnerships with Impax and Nomura. We will also grow our client base through CIPAM’s market-leading credit offerings. Providing clients and customers with compelling and contemporary product is key. And this year, we will continue to focus on evolving our life product offering. We have a great track record of continuously evolving our products to meet customer needs, and we aim to build on that this year. In the bank, we have a familiar product that provides a great base to build from, and we'll work towards transitioning to the channel brand in the second half of this year. As I've outlined today, I really believe we have a unique opportunity to leverage the combined capabilities of the group which will be our third focus area. This includes leveraging our leading capabilities in IT to integrate our bank and to support immediate growth. Responsible investing is an increasing priority for our stakeholders and reflecting this, we will continue to embed ESG capability across our investment platforms. And across the entire group, maintaining a strong investment performance will be key. Finally, we will strengthen the resilience and long-term sustainability of our business by focusing on our people to ensure we can retain and attract top talent to take the business forward. Importantly, we will maintain our strong balance sheet and focus on risk-adjusted returns as we seek to deliver on our purpose to our customers, shareholders and to the community. In closing, today's results demonstrate Challenger's strong position with business momentum demonstrated by record sales growth. We've taken decisive action to position the business for the future, driving our diversification strategy, repositioning the investment portfolio and strengthening our capital position. As a result of these actions, we've entered 2022 in good shape, strongly capitalized with a stable asset mix, well positioned to execute our investment growth strategy and drive significant earnings growth. It has been and remains a great privilege to lead this business, and I'm really proud of what we do and what we've achieved to date. Looking to the future, the size of the opportunity for Challenger is both significant and exciting. I'm confident the business is ideally placed to capture this opportunity and deliver on its purpose of providing financial security for a better retirement. So thank you all very much for your time this morning, and Rachel and I would be delighted to take your questions. I now pass the call back to the operator. Thank you.

[Operator Instructions] The first question comes from Andrei Stadnik from MS.

Can you hear me, okay?

Yes. Thank you.

Can I ask 2 questions, please? Can I ask, firstly, on sales and the impact from COVID. You said there's been minimal impact from the lockdowns so far. But it's not clear if the June quarter received the usual seasonal pickup in sales. Can you elaborate a little bit more in terms of how your sales channels are adjusting to the new lockdowns?

Yes. I think that the lockdown really has impacted post year-end. So I think of July and into August has been where you'd expect that to be high. I would say we finished the year with strong momentum when I look at things like the daily run rates and sales volumes and so forth. I think the retail franchise is in really good shape. It's a little bit unpredictable exactly what the impact of COVID is going to be, but I'm really comfortable with the momentum that we've got on the retail side of the business there and distribution more broadly.

And my second question, around Fidante and Funds Management. Is there an opportunity for Fidante to pivot to private credit funds given you've got the expertise already in Challenger, given it's a global growth opportunity and also given the capital-light nature of that kind of business?

Yes, great question, Andrei. And let me just say more broadly, one of the fantastic things about Fidante's model is that there are really multiple avenues for organic growth. You can see that insofar as the way we have brought on new partnerships with Impax and Nomura, for example, which build on the partnership we've got with Ares. You can also see that in the new boutiques that we bring into the business, including Ox Capital with its non-Japan, Asia focus and really strong growth prospects there. It's also noteworthy that our private credit capabilities within CIPAM are the base of new funds that, that business has been launching. So there really are multiple avenues for growth available to us in those asset classes, both within Fidante and within the Funds Management business more broadly. Hopefully, that answers your question there.

The next question comes from Simon Fitzgerald from E&P.

I have 3 here. First one for Rachel and firstly, congratulations on your appointment. The ABS tranche that was recognized that was paid back early, can you just give us a little bit of a feeling in terms of what sort of assets were in that pool and why was it repaid early? And is it a penalty that you received? Just trying to understand how those mechanisms work.

Well, thank you for your question and your offer of congratulations. That was a U.K.-based security. It was pretty much a one-off at the request of the other side. We don't look to have this as a repeatable event but these things do come about.

Okay. And then my second 2 questions for Mr. Howes. Just firstly, on the guidance, you talked about the middle of the range, representing 15% growth. You talked about it being 12% ROE. It sounds to me like that's sort of the most sort of likely outcome. I'm interested to know in your mind what sort of events or trends do you need to see to sort of reach the top end of those expectations. And I'll say this with all due credit that 2018 final quarter was dismal in the markets. We've had COVID-19. But at the same time, in the last 4 years, Challenger has only ever managed to meet the bottom end of its expectations and had 3 downgrades. So I'm just sort of trying to get a sense of what sort of events or issues could happen that you could see the top end of that range.

Thanks, Simon. So first, I'd say that is our best expectation at this point. And that would leave a growth of 10% and then also in line with our ROE target. There are a number of things that can contribute to variability. We're in a pandemic at the moment. So things like rental abatements can cause variations in the rental receipts that we receive. You've seen variability through time in the cash flows we get from our alternative asset pools, so things like our absolute return funds. I can say actually that they finished the year strongly and we're seeing strong performance going into this year as well. So I have some confidence around that. And then more broadly, distributions out of our growth assets, if you like, can also be variable. So we do have a range for a reason. I think the $50 million range is an appropriate one. But there is good momentum in the business at the moment. And I'm comfortable to have provided that midpoint to you today.

Okay, fair. And then the final question. One of the other impacts on FY '21 that we saw was new business written to new institutions at margins done lower than Challenger would normally do to attract that business. That was called out today that, that's this new institutional business. It's a new area for Challenger. I'm just wondering how you might treat new relationships going forward given that, that margin also resulted in a revision of guidance.

Yes. It was a really unusual period, Simon. Thanks for the question. It's a good one. Obviously, we saw a rapid push out in credit spreads in response to the early phase of the pandemic and then really an unprecedented tightening on the back of central bank intervention. And this at a time where we've been developing a real focus on broadening our institutional relationships, and we had a number of these relationships and transactions in the pipeline. And with a view to the life cycle value of those relationships, as you've said, we wrote business at margins that were slightly tighter than would have been consistent with our ROE target and tighter than we normally would. We have adjusted all of our pricing in that regard. You can see that both in terms of the retail prices for annuities, which are in there and also the pricing for institutional business. So it's our expectation, and you can see it in our guidance that the business we write over the course of the year will be consistent with that ROE target and support the guidance that we've given in that regard today.

The next question comes from Andrew Buncombe from Macquarie.

Just a couple from me, please. The first one, just in regards to Page 32 of the analyst pack, it makes a comment that there's been a change in the mix of Japanese sales towards shorter durations, but we couldn't see exactly why. Are you able to give us a bit more color on what's happening there and if you think that change is reflective of that business going forward?

Thank you for the question, Andrew. In relation to that contract that we have with MSP that the sales can be between 3 or 20-year duration. So that has come down slightly in terms of the tenor that, that group has been selling. So it's as simple as that. We're not worried about that one.

Okay, sure. And then my second question, just in terms of your new major international shareholder. Maybe if you can give us an indication if that creates new distribution opportunities or product options for Challenger or is that investment purely at arms length?

That's a great question. I think it is early days in terms of that relationship. I think the way I look at Apollo and Athene's acquisition of a minority stake in Challenger is, first and foremost, it's a really strong endorsement of the business and the growth opportunities we have in front of us. It's also important to reflect on the fact that Athene is a leading retirement services provider, a leader in the annuities market and has a stated purpose to provide financial security for retirement. So it's definitely kind of a meeting of minds from a purpose point of view. More broadly, Apollo is a leading alternative asset provider and an alternative credit provider and has a long track record in establishing asset origination platform. So that would certainly suggest there are areas of potential cooperation, whether that's in sort of product development and comparing that in terms of our respective annuity markets or in terms of developing asset origination capabilities together. But I would say it's early days, and we're looking forward to the possibility of those opportunities.

Sure. And then just the final one for me, please. Made a comment in the analyst pack that you think there will be a slight impact on rent deferrals going into FY '22. Are you able to put a number on that, please?

I think it's a fluid and unpredictable situation exactly what the impact of recent lockdowns are going to be on rental abatement and the possibility of deferrals and so forth. What I would say is that the full impact of the pandemic has been reflected in our guidance. So if I compare what our rental receipts were expected to be in FY '22 when we stood there pre-pandemic, they're definitely lower. And so we built that into our guidance. The recent lockdown do have the potential, obviously, to move that as well. And just to add to that and probably push this a bit. It's worth reminding that the portfolio is very defensively positioned. Our retail assets are neighborhood shopping centers anchored by major supermarkets predominantly. And then within our office portfolio, there's a large proportion of the rental assets that's come from the government. In fact, in aggregate across the entire portfolio, the government represents 30% of our rental roll. So it is a defensive portfolio. We're less exposed to those sorts of impacts than a more typical real estate portfolio. But that said, it is one of the reasons why we have a range on our guidance.

The next question comes from Brett Le from Velocity Trade.

All the best, Richard, wherever you're going. I'm sorry to see you leave Challenger. But let me get on to my question, the guidance for the margin of 2.5% for FY '22. I did the calculation of what the margin would be based on your life front book economics slide from Investor Day, and I got a margin of 2.35%. So my question is, did you do that same calculation and have things got better since the Investor Day or do we have some more margin decline to come?

The margin we've got in our guidance is reflecting what we expect next year. And I think it's appropriate to sort of reflect on stabilization of margins, and I don't have an expectation of further margin decline just to sort of answer that question directly, Brett. What I would say about the front book economic slide is that it's necessarily a simplification. Our business, of course, comprises multiple duration of annuities and we're trying to represent the aggregate economics in a simple representative economic slide, which shows how the ROE outcomes emerge. So whilst you can go through the math and produce a margin slide. That's not necessarily indicative of the margins at which the front book will be written. What I can say is that the ROE, which is how we run the business and how we define our targets, are representative of that front book economic slide. Great. I'll miss our exchanges as well.

One further question. The $9 million software write-off, is that related to some cloud computing. What was that about?

Well, that was the opportunity that we had. We've put in a new general ledger system, et cetera. As it is cloud-based computing, we took the opportunity to bring forward the amortization of that entire program. So really when the asset-backed security was realized, we took that opportunity to bring all that forward. So that plays out really well for FY '22.

The next question comes from James Cordukes from Credit Suisse.