Good morning, and welcome to the Annual General Meeting of Australian Ethical Investment Limited. My name is Steve Gibbs, and I'm the Chair of the Country on which we meet. Here in Sydney, it's the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. I would also acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of all the lands, wherever you are, those looking online today. I... Borders and Culture, and I pay my respects to their Elders, past and present. We are conducting the AGM today as a hybrid meeting, whereby shareholders... The Company Secretary has advised me that a quorum, which is two shareholders, is present. I therefore declare the annual general meeting open. My fellow Directors, Julie Orr, Sandra McCullagh, Richard Brandweiner, Brian Bissaker, and our Managing Director, John McMurdo, are present in the room today.
The executive leadership team, I would also like to introduce some members of the team that are here at today's meeting. Mark Simons, I'm going to go if I can see that far. It's almost in the order it's got on my list. Sorry. Mark Simons, Ludovic Theau, Alison George, Maria Loyez, Eveline Moos, Conrad Tsang, and our newest addition, Anthony Lane, Chief Operating Officer, who was only commenced with us yesterday. Welcome very much, Anthony. Of course, our Company Secretary, Karen Hughes, who's in the background there somewhere. KPMG is present. Welcome. We've received 187 valid proxy forms. This represents approximately 42% of the ordinary voting shares of the company on issue. The proxy votes will be released to the ASX with the results of this AGM. The Notice of Meeting was dispatched to all shareholders. I will take the... For the meeting will be as follows.
Please note that we are recording today's proceedings, and the recording may be available on our website in due course. We are pleased to facilitate this hybrid meeting through the MUFG online platform. This enables shareholders to participate in the meeting irrespective of where they are in the world, and I warmly welcome those of you participating online. I have a couple of quick housekeeping points. For those of you here in person, I would appreciate if all mobile phones could be turned off or turned to silent mode. Recording devices and cameras may not be used during the meeting. In the unlikely event of an emergency, please follow the emergency exit sign as follows. I will deliver a short address. Our Managing Director and CEO, John McMurdo, will then address the meeting. I will then ask if anybody has questions for John or me.
We will then proceed with the formal agenda. I note that in accordance with the Company's Constitution, the status of employees has been reported on in the Remuneration Report and the Sustainability Report, which are part of the Annual Report which accompanied the Notice of Meeting The financial statements will be tabled, and I will provide an opportunity for shareholders to ask questions in relation to the financial statements for the year ended 30th of June 2025. The Directors standing for re-election or election, Sandra McCullagh and Brian Bissaker, will address the meeting at the relevant time and answer any questions that you have. Polls will be conducted for all resolutions. You can vote at any time, provided, of course, you haven't voted already, and I urge you to vote as soon as you can.
I will leave a short period at the end of the meeting to allow people to finalise their vote before I close the meeting, because once I declare the meeting closed, no more voting will be available. The results of the published polls, as I said, will be published on the ASX and on the company's website as soon as the information is available, which we expect will be this afternoon. Before I give my formal address, I'd like to share a short video. Financial Year 2025 has been an important and successful year for Australian Ethical. We have grown, delivered strong results for shareholders, and continued to prove that you can do well by doing good. Both organic and inorganic successes contributed to our business's strong financial performance in Financial Year 2025.
Our funds under management increased to AUD 13.94 billion on the 30th of June, and I'm thrilled to say that we've exceeded the AUD 14 billion mark of funds under management in the first quarter of the current financial year. The Altius acquisition has been good for the business, not just adding enhanced fixed income capability to the team, but also adding AUD 1.93 billion in funds. Investment performance and organic net flows added an additional combined AUD 1.64 billion. In Financial Year 2025, our underlying profit after tax was up 29% on the previous year to AUD 23.8 million. Total dividends increased by 56% to AUD 0.14 a share, reflecting stronger earnings and our commitment to disciplined capital management while preserving balance sheet strength. We've been doing this for a long time.
Since our inception in 1986, coming up to 40 years next year, we have been investing in line with our ethical charter, using a sophisticated two-stage investment process which makes us unique and true to our label of Australian Ethical. For us, ethics comes first. It always has. Our team assesses assets and sectors against our ethical criteria before then applying our rigorous investment process. This process leads us towards future-focused investment opportunities. It's led us to investing in new innovations and technologies across industries and sectors over the years, including healthcare, education, and climate technologies. Today, we are an investor in sustainable housing, low-carbon infrastructure technologies, as well as private market and venture-style investments enabling emerging energy and climate technology. Our ethical charter also steers us. We invest this way because it's who we are.
We believe the power of money can be harnessed to deliver both competitive returns and positive change for people, planet, and animals, and economic conditions, and in the measurement of the difference our portfolios make. In the last year, our Australian flagship, Australian Shares Fund, and Emerging Companies Fund celebrated 30 and 10 years of ethical outperformance, respectively, while three of our super options ranked in the top 20 super fund options in the country. Every year, we also mention how our ethical charter makes our listed portfolios look different. We have 2.3x the revenue from sustainable impact solutions compared to the benchmark. We have 5.2x the revenue from sustainable water and agriculture and pollution prevention solutions, and 4.1x the level of renewables and energy solution. Investing for the future is what the world needs.
To be effective, we also know we need the right signals from government and the right policy settings. We were disappointed the government was not more ambitious when it set its 2035 nationally Determined Contribution target in September, which was for emissions to be 62%–70% below what Australia agreed to set every five years when we became a signatory under the Paris Agreement in 2016. Fossil fuels still account for more than 80% of greenhouse gas emissions globally, which is why we continue to engage with banks about their lending to fossil fuel companies and new projects, and with insurers about why they continue to provide insurance to those companies and projects. I am personally more than a little disappointed that the Australian government continues to subsidize fossil fuel companies amounting to close to an estimated AUD 15 billion in the last year in subsidies.
We have now shifted our focus to the role we can play to ensure the nation reaches our next set of targets, and the possibility of the global conference coming to Australia in 2026. Our foundation is supporting Professor Anne Poelina from the Martuwarra Fitzroy River Council to join a delegation in Belém, Brazil, this month. The goal is to advocate for the protection of the pristine Kimberley region and its communities in Western Australia, highlighting Indigenous Leadership and scientific knowledge in nature conservation. The foundation's refreshed strategy and vision to empower communities to preserve nature and regenerate ecosystems comes at a time when investors and markets are starting to consider the dependencies on nature and the impact their investments are having on nature.
While nature is deeply embedded in our ethical assessment process, we are now developing a formal position on nature to guide our assessment of companies and their links to nature loss and impacts on vulnerable species and sites with high biodiversity. Before handing over to our Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, John McMurdo, I'd like to say a few words of thanks and acknowledgement. I want to acknowledge and welcome Richard Brandweiner and Brian Bissaker, who were appointed to the board in September last year and April this year, respectively. Both individuals bring a wealth of experience and knowledge to help the business elevate its position and deliver on its vision and purpose. Most recently, Richard was Chief Executive Officer of Pendal Australia, and prior to this, he was Chief Investment Officer of Aware Super and a group executive at Perpetual Investments.
Meanwhile, Brian was the CEO of Colonial First State and CEO of Virgin Money Australia, and Executive Vice President of BT Funds Management. I want to give a big thank you and acknowledgement to Kate Greenhill, who has recently retired as a Non-Executive Director. As well as being Non-Executive Director of Australian Ethical and our super fund, Kate has been the Chair of the Australian Ethical Investment and Australian Ethical Superannuation Audit Risk and Compliance Committees, and a member of the People and Remuneration Committee, the Due Diligence Committee, and the Insurance and Benefits Committee. Kate was first appointed Director of Australian Ethical Investment on the 22nd of February, 2013, and has played a significant role in the transformation of what the company was then to what it is today. Shareholders owe Kate a huge debt of gratitude. Thank you, Kate.
It's always sad when someone leaves who has had such a profound impact on an organization. Before I finish, some more rather sad news. Tony Cole passed away over the weekend. Tony Cole was a director of AEI. He was appointed just before Kate in February 2013 and retired from the board on the 30th of June, 2017, due to health and personal reasons. Tony was an exceptional Australian, and the country will be significantly less with his passing. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who contributed to the success that Financial Year 2025 was. My fellow directors, our MDC, our leadership team, all AEI employees, and our key service providers, thank you. I'll now pass over to John for a more in-depth presentation about your company.
Thanks, Steve. Morning, everyone. It's great to be together again, actually. I'd also like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we're meeting today and pay my respects for their custodianship of country, country we're blessed to be on today. I wanted to begin this morning where Steve partly left off in publicly extending my gratitude to our board, many of whom are gathered today in the room, of course, and many more around the country online this morning. We've had another incredible financial year in Financial Year 2025, indeed a transformational one in many respects, which is in large part due to the deep commitment and fabulous purpose-driven, high-performing culture, which I observe every day in this organization, is the absolute foundation of our success.
Our purpose, as Steve said, which is where I always start, remains clear, also unwavering, to invest for a better world. This is not a slogan. Rather, it's the lens through which every decision in our organization is made. In a year marked by record-breaking climate events, regulatory scrutiny swaying political agendas, shifting global sentiment on sustainable investing or sustainability in general, our role as ethical investors has never been more important. While many investment managers have indeed pulled back, weakening their focus, we continue to allocate capital to future-focused opportunities, advocate for systemic change, and use our growing influence to catalyze positive outcomes for people, planet, and animals. Our theory of change is working.
As our funds under management have grown, our brand recognition has increased, and our credibility as an organization is further recognized, so too is our ability to create change, both through our investments and our stewardship activities. We are proud of what we do, but there's a lot more yet to be done. The boundaries have been breached with greenhouse gas concentrations rising, overuse of nutrients, deforestation, ocean acidity, unsustainable, and that will challenge our very way of life. In Australia, we've seen firsthand the economic and the personal cost of the climate crisis, with more frequent weather events, extreme ones, bushfires, significant algal bloom in South Australia. Australia's first national climate risk assessment, published only a few weeks ago, made for pretty sobering reading, in my opinion, flagging the future risks and the costs that our country may well bear.
It's clear that to protect our future, we must protect our planet. To do that, the world needs to continue to reach science-based targets. While it does not seem so at times, pleasingly, this message is starting to get through. For the first time this year, global renewable energy generation surpassed coal, with solar expansion and steady wind growth driving the world's shift away from fossil fuels. This is a natural consequence of the global investment in clean energy, now nearly doubling that of fossil fuels. As investors, we have had an important role to play, not just directing capital, but also guiding business leaders and regulators to set the right conditions to enable the acceleration of the transition to cheaper and cleaner renewable energy.
We are driven by the science and the opportunity, investing in technologies and solutions, reshaping industries, and delivering long-term investment returns as the world shifts towards a lower carbon future. We have been and will continue to be a loud and public voice calling for change. I have to say, given we're on track to be the second largest in the world by 2030, it's so disappointing that there are not more loud voices seeking better disclosure of climate risk, commitments to end deforestation, pushing for alternatives to animal research, or standing up to protect the natural habitats that underpin our ecological systems. We are garnering support, though. In the last 12 months, shareholder resolutions we co-filed, including with Westpac and Macquarie Group, saw an increase in support.
Our most recent co-filed shareholder resolution in July, calling on Macquarie Group to improve climate risk disclosure, got 35% support from shareholders, ranking it in the top five climate-related shareholder resolutions in the world in the last 12 months. Following the lead of LD and Woolworths last year, Coles confirmed they're developing a formal commitment through the science-based targets initiatives to eliminate deforestation from its supply chains. Some walked back on their commitment to no deforestation in their beef supply chain. Our investments and stewardship team, as well as their policy on farm salmon sourcing, caged eggs, and on governance more broadly. These kinds of initiatives are absolutely integral to who we are: multi-year strategic initiatives designed to drive meaningful change that will make businesses more sustainable, better for investors, and ultimately better for everyone. It's how we realize our vision of money as a force for good.
In terms of business performance and highlights in FY 2025, I'm so proud to share that our team has again delivered quite remarkable results. Underlying profit up a significant 29% to $23.8 million. Our statutory profit, or NPAT, was up 68% to $19.9 million. That was enabled by strong 19% year-on-year revenue growth to $119.4 million, combined with disciplined cost management. That combination being reflected in our cost-to-income ratio, improving to 71.4% from 73.7% in FY 2024, further demonstrating the structural improvement in our operating leverage that I've consistently said would begin to emerge from our increased scale. Funds under management reached a new record high of $13.94 billion and, as Steve said, surpassed $14 billion in the last quarter, aided most importantly by strong continued organic growth, but further supported by the successful acquisition and integration of Altius Asset Management.
Our financial momentum and the structural improvement in our operating profit enabled the board, with confidence, to declare a 56% uplift on FY 2024. Clearly, an excellent year on all key measures. As most of you know, this has not been a one-year journey or a one-off flash-in-the-pan style result. When we embarked on our growth strategy in 2020, we were clear that funds under management and revenue capture, if we were successful, would result in stronger medium- to longer-term profit growth and a business more capable of capturing further upside beyond that. As I stand here today, the Australian Ethical team continue to deliver on that promise. Fund capture has been strong, predominantly from strong and consistent organic growth. We've now delivered more than 50 consecutive quarters of positive net flows when other fund managers have at times struggled.
We have achieved that through various economic and political cycles, through inflationary environments, a global pandemic even, and geopolitical tensions, of course. That organic growth and, in the more recent case, of Altius Asset Management, both scale and aligned capability, that increases the strength and breadth of our business and of our economic engine, being investment management margin capture. Revenue growth, even after sharpening our pricing over the last 5 to 10 years to intentionally support customer retention, has been very, very pleasing. That has enabled us now and significantly increased dividends in recent periods. For me and the board, though, even more pleasing than the results we have already delivered is the unquestionably stronger, more diversified, more capable business we now have.
With intention, one of the most trusted brands in the country, with very strong customer satisfaction measured by Net Promoter Scores, we were awarded the Neo Brand Awards for Financial Partner of the Year. The Neo segment being those more progressive Australians more likely to connect with brands because they reflect how they themselves feel about issues. Exactly our target market, as you would expect, with significant transitions of superannuation providers, custodians, and investment platform partners, providing us more modern, agile, scalable solutions with significant underlying unit cost efficiencies at the same time. Our investment capabilities, including our human capital, asset classes, and product offerings, are broad. That investing and impact capability is underpinning exactly what our target market is attracted to: high-quality, repeatable investment on creating a better world. As Steve mentioned, our Australian Shares Fund celebrated its 30-year anniversary during this year.
Over that 30 years, delivering an amazing 9.7% per annum return net of fees, which is around 2% compound above the benchmark over 30 years, a remarkable evidence point of our successful long-term investment capability, delivering strong outcomes for our customers. We are using our growing scale, our credibility, and trusted voice to help deliver on our purpose, to steward and advocate, as I shared earlier, in boardrooms with CEOs at AGMs, via the media, through sponsoring research, through submissions to industry bodies and capital too, but also in sectors where we do not. Add to that the valuable and growing work of our foundation. Our customers value our efforts and our approach immensely, done for reasons of mission, but also instrumental in building our brand trust.
A better series of proof points, I think, than me talking about the quality of the company are the number of external awards we are receiving across almost every facet of our business, in fact, for investments and superannuation excellence and for growth, for our customer experience and service, our B Corp leadership across Australia and New Zealand, and most recently, last green innovation category. Australian Ethical is now a business that's been able to invest for growth, achieve growth, achieve accelerated profit realization, and build a true platform to capture more. Our medium-term opportunity is exciting to us. We do believe the drivers for and the demand for responsible investing will continue over time, even as political regimes change and rhetoric oscillates, because the existential threat to the planet and the urgency of many, if not all, humans to address these problems is growing.
We have a clear and disciplined strategy to succeed. The strong, authentic brand that Australian Ethical now has positions us very strongly. We have worked hard and, as a priority over the last few years, to build deep and perpetual capability in the high-margin, sticky, high-systems growth part of the market, being retail superannuation. I believe we are now very strongly positioned with brand trust, investment capability and performance, direct-to-consumer marketing capability, channel breadth, and momentum. It has been our priority, and we are pleased with the traction. It will underpin our growth and will continue to be a major focus of our strategy. Further, I have highlighted in more recent times, we have also been systematically building the capability and infrastructure to compete and succeed in the investment space beyond superannuation. We see potential for new revenue capture and future potential in international equities.
The investment talent, product expansion, systems, and process we continue to build and believe we can package in the years ahead with resource pointed at the values-aligned middle market is, we believe, deeply prospective for us. This capability is now supported with recommended ratings for all of our multi-asset funds, our Australian shares, emerging companies, high-conviction funds, and, in more recent days, our Green Bond and Sustainable Bond Funds. We're receiving numerous awards for many aspects of our investing capability. We expect the green shoots of that work to continue to emerge over the next 18-36 months on what is already a growing pipeline of opportunities. We also remain intent on securing the benefits of scale over time. Our successful transitions to Grove and to State Street are enhancing our customer delivery and our operational efficiency while delivering valuable unit cost reductions.
Our implementation of the Charles River and Alpha Data Platform will first and foremost bring more institutional-grade offerings and service to market, secure investment and support from investment consultants and external stakeholder support more broadly, and enable us much more strongly to compete in that values-aligned middle market. We are making meaningful progress in the use of our improved data capability, aided by those more agile service providers, to further optimize and target our marketing and retention activities. This now includes even the early use of AI to support that optimization. As I have shared already this morning, the people capability we have been able to build and secure really underpins a great platform for our further growth.
In summary, I'm describing a strategy that sees us start to leverage the optionality and growth platform that we've built for revenue growth and will see us continue to focus our effort to build over the medium term. We're adamant that we can continue to grow the top line, both organically and periodically inorganically as well, as you've seen, and further widen the cost-to-income draws. This is a strategy that will benefit all of our stakeholders. As I stand in front of our shareholders this morning, I expect you to continue to be well rewarded for your support of our company. In conclusion, we recognize the challenges. Lower superannuation switching rates evident across the entire superannuation sector will continue to test us.
Our strong balance sheet, our enhanced capability, and our clear strategy give us confidence in our ability to navigate those headwinds and capture the many opportunities we see ahead. We remain resolute in our pursuit of a more sustainable and ethical future, one where our investments yield not only financial returns but also contribute to a world that thrives for generations to come. Our members, our partners, and the entire Australian Ethical team, thank you for your unwavering support and dedication. Together, we are proving that it is possible to deliver strong financial returns and create real, lasting impact for people, planet, and animals. Resolute in our purpose, confident in our strategy, and excited for answering any questions that you may have.
Eric, microphone coming.
It's 14 of these meetings I've been to now. I've got two questions. The first one comes, we now have a very, very strong board.
I'd like to welcome all the directors that we have to this board. My question for the board is, how do we benchmark against other equivalent companies? Who do we compare against?
Okay. Can I ask a question in return? In what respect? Do you mean in terms of the key financial aspects of the company, or do you mean in terms of our impact or over where? The whole lot.
Our impact is far better than all the others. How do we compare financially?
Three cohorts. Eric and I asked John to weigh in. We look at funds managers. We look at superannuation funds. And we look at other listed companies, particularly listed companies in those, but there's only a handful. There's only a handful of listed fund manager companies.
We do look at other listed companies about our size, even if they're in different industries, just to get quotes and numbers off the top of my head. We stack up okay. More than okay compared to where we were a few years ago. We're growing.
Since I've got the mic.
Go ahead.
I'll preface my question by saying we've got a very good branding program. The logos, the marketing is really, really good. Our business seems to be about majority superannuation. My question is, despite our branding, despite our strong management team, our inflows are fairly consistently not accelerating or not growing. How do you see the market, the superannuation market in particular? It's going to keep growing. How are we performing now? Have we fallen off? We were the second fastest growing superannuation company. How are we going now?
We're still one of the fastest. John, you can jump in again. Can I just say, Eric, that what's been happening in superannuation over the last few years is the number of people and the amount of money that's been switched from one fund to another fund has declined significantly. The last number I saw compared to just post-COVID, down about 50%. Many more people are not switching than they used to. Why? Don't know. We never will know. Our judgment is that in times of uncertainty, people don't like making major financial decisions. The last few years have certainly done that. There are other factors. There is stapling of superannuation funds. Once you join one at the start of your working career, that's where you stay unless you make a decision to move. Previous stapling has had some impact, we think. They're the two major factors.
John, do you want to add?
No, I completely agree with that. Let me add to that. In financial year 2025, we were out of the market for a period of time as we had to do our major superannuation transition. That put a little bit of a hole in our performance last year. What was really pleasing to see, conversely, was our fourth quarter of the last financial year actually being a record quarter of net flows in our history as a company. We think that bodes well for our continued growth and confidence about continuing to do well in superannuation. As I suggested in my address, we've been looking with intent to develop a we're very optimistic about our future for both flows and growth in general.
Is Australian Ethical impacted by Macquarie Group's move to substantially reduce the number of funds on its platform?
The short answer to that is no. Macquarie Group's confirmed that we'll remain on their platform. So that's pleasing for us.
Okay. If there's no more questions oh, yes, please. Thank you.
Any risks for the business around that, in terms of if performance were to drop off? And what's the nightmare scenario? What should we be worried about at night around that kind of scenario for the company?
I'll start by saying that we obviously monitor our performance against the test. We do that continually because you're right, it's a huge risk. We're not in immediate and any options is marginal in terms of the test. Where most of the money is in terms of our balance fund and a couple of the other options, we've got a significant buffer.
Of course, if it happened that we failed the test two years in a row, it is a very serious issue because we can no longer, well, after one year, we have to advise members about performance. I think after two, we are not allowed to accept any new money into that option. It is a serious issue, and that is why we continue to monitor. I note that the treasurer recently announced a review of the performance test. Not sure what is going to happen. We have often said that as an ethical investor, we do not want to be subject to a different performance test because we believe you can ethically invest and still deliver great returns. That is our primary position. We have proven that. At the moment, we are not in any short-term risk of that happening.
Can you remind me, that is the test? It's two years in a row of a rolling five-year or an average five-year test?
I think it's an average 10 now. It's an average 10 years.
10. Okay. So 10 year.
It's a 10-year. I think it started off at 7. Am I right? You fail over a rolling 10-year period. I think I'm right on that.
Yeah. The strategy that might be at risk, how much fund are you talking?
It's modest in the scheme of our total funds under management. Of course, we have the ability to migrate those into other funds that we have. We're not especially concerned about that. I think the other point I'd make is it's been relevant that we now have a fabulous investment committee. We have a much deeper, stronger, more experienced investment team across all asset classes.
We feel like we've done a good job in creating resilience around exactly that issue in recent years. Thanks for the question.
Any other questions? Any other questions from anybody online before we move on? We'll move to the formal part of the business of the meeting. With the exception of item one for which there is no resolution required, the following process will be followed. I will read the resolution being put to the meeting. I won't ask for movers or seconders. The resolution and the relevant proxies will be displayed on the screen. I will follow the order of the resolution. As I said earlier, voting on the resolutions will be conducted by way of a poll. Only shareholders, proxy holders, or appointed representatives are entitled to vote or speak or vote at the meeting.
For those attending the meeting in person, you can cast your vote by filling out a paper voting card that you should have been given. If you do not have a paper voting card and you are entitled to vote, please let us know, and we will make sure that is corrected. For those shareholders participating in the meeting via the online platform, you can cast your vote once you have validated your registration online. If you have any questions about casting your vote online, please refer to the online platform guide available on our website or call us on the number set out in the guide. If we experience any technical issues, a short recess or adjournment may be required depending on the number of shareholders being affected. The back of the room from MUFG is the returning officer for the meeting.
If you're attending the meeting in person, you will have been given an attendance card when you registered on arrival. If you have a yellow voting card, you're a voting shareholder, proxy holder, or corporate representative. A non-voting shareholder, you're entitled to ask questions or comments, but you're not entitled to vote at the meeting. If you have a red card, you're a visitor, you're not entitled to speak or vote at the meeting. If anyone with a yellow or blue card wishes to speak, please make your way to the microphone or use the roving microphone and identify yourself to me before you ask any questions. For those participating via online platform, as one already has, you can ask a question by selecting. I will consider the questions submitted online after I've taken questions from the floor.
Out of fairness to everyone present, I ask that you limit your questions to one at a time and also restrict your questions and comments to the resolutions being considered. I reserve the right as Chair. Juror questions as not pertaining to the AGM or out of order. I confirm that in accordance with the notice of meeting and proxy form, where undirected proxies have been given to me as my role as Chairman, I will vote those proxies in favor of resolutions to be counted. The results of the polls were released to the ASX and on the company's website. To the formal part of the business, item one accounts. Item one provides for the meeting to receive and consider the financial statements of the company and the related Directors' Report, Directors' Declaration, and Auditor's Report. These documents have been made available to shareholders in accordance with their communication preferences.
Accounts director's report and auditor's report before the meeting. No resolution is required in relation to item one, but I invite shareholders to ask questions on the financial statements for the year ended 30th of June and the related director's report and auditor's report, including any questions of the auditor on. There being no questions, I'll move to the second formal item, which is resolution two. This resolution concerns the re-election of Sandra McCullough as a non-executive director. The resolution is that Sandra McCullagh, director, be re-elected as a non-executive director of the company. In accordance with the company's constitution, Sandra is retiring from office and being eligible, standing for re-election.
Address the meeting today. So my name is Sandra McCullagh. I was appointed as a director of Australian Ethical in March 2023.
I'm chair of the investment committee and a member of the people remuneration committee and the nominations committee of Australian Ethical. I was originally appointed as an independent member of the investment committee back in February 2022. I have not-for-profit roles. I've served on the board of QSuper during the negotiation and merger with Sunsuper to form QSuper up until the merger. I'm now a director of WorkCover Queensland, the workers' compensation business of the Queensland government. I serve as chair of the people committee on that board. I'm also now on the board of the Sunshine Coast Hospital and Health Service, where I serve. Beside that, I serve on a number of not-for-profit boards in the arts, education, and women's leadership space. I also have a strong background in ESG, energy, and investment banking.
I thrive in complex for-purpose board roles, and Australian Ethical is one of those. At Australian Ethical, it's been a busy year, as Steve and John have outlined. We have transferred our custody and investment administration to State Street, implemented the Charles River and Alpha data platforms, and completed the acquisition of Altius Fixed Income Business in September 2024. That expanded our in-house capability, especially in fixed income. In fact, in FY 2025, all the Altius Fixed Income Funds outperformed their benchmark over one year, and the products we have acquired and integrated into our business. We have achieved recommended ratings for all our multi-asset funds from Lonsec and Zenith, and some of our fixed income funds merged from Altius. The recommended ratings from rating agencies are important and our product performance.
Alongside the build-out of our private markets investment team, we now have a solid platform across all investment in the market for us to succeed. Our funds under management has now passed $14 billion. I believe I've brought skills such as investment governance to the investment committee, and these have added value as Australian Ethical grows, expands its product base, and continues its investment performance within our 23 guiding principles of our investment of our ethical charter. You can read more about our investment achievements in 2025 on page 12 of our annual report. We have a good mix of skills and experience on the board of Australian Ethical, the thought at the Australian Ethical board and on the investment committee. I very much appreciate your support in my re-election as a director. Thank you.
Do we have any—sorry, Sandra. Do we have any questions for Sandra?
Nothing in the room. Thanks, Sandra.
Now I'm going to display the resolution two with the current proxy vote. Thank you. If nothing further on resolution two, we'll move to resolution three, the election of Brian Bissaker. The resolution is that Brian Bissaker, director, be elected as a non-executive director of the company. Brian was appointed as a non-executive director of the company by the board with effect from the 15th of April 2025. In accordance with the company's constitution, Brian is standing for election. The board endorses Brian's election. I'll now ask Brian to address the meeting.
Thank you, Steve. Can I first say that it's a privilege for me to be seeking election to the board and for shareholders for the opportunity to be elected to the board?
I also sit on the People and Remuneration Committee, a position on the board which articulates why I'm well suited to add value to the Australian Ethical Investment business as a board director. I spent the first 11 years of my executive career as a tax advisor at KPMG, gaining my chartered accounting qualifications. I used this experience then to move into funds management as an executive vice president of product and then moving on to becoming the Chief Executive Officer of Colonial First State. Both houses are and were leading funds management businesses of their times. I worked across both the retail and institutions. This almost two decades of senior executive positions saw me gain significant experience across a broad range of operations: product, marketing, distribution, strategy, human resources, operations.
During my time, I was also the Deputy Chair of the Financial Services Council, which is the funds management industry association. Later in my career, I gained further experience in banking as the Chief Executive Officer of Virgin Money and as a Group Executive of the Bank of Queensland. This broader financial services experience has continued in my nine years as a non-executive director across a range of organizations, including on the board of Citibank, the board of IMB Bank, and as Chair of Artiga Investment Administration and ESG committees. I have a great deal of experience in governance of highly regulated financial services organizations. Of course, I have had a long-term interest in value investing. I have significant experience in funds management and broader financial services industry that I could bring to the board.
I first established a values-based investment fund in 2007 when I was Chief Executive of Colonial First State. CFS entered an arrangement with the U.K.-based Generation Investment Management to exclusively distribute their ESG-based global share fund into the Australian retail market. Generation is chaired then and now by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore and is a leading global values investing house. That fund, since 2007, has returned 11% per annum for 18 years. I can see many parallels between the way that Generation managed their it out. The Australian Ethical Retail Share Fund, Australian Share Fund, has a 30-year track record of 9.7% per annum for 30 years, 2.2% above benchmark. That is exceptional. That is what really attracts me to this organization, those sort of investment performance returns.
These results show that ethically based investment can produce significant long-term investment performance, which has a positive and productive impact for society and members' own investment goals. As John and Steve have talked about, Australia and the globe are facing many challenges, from climate change through to armed conflict. I want to add my skills to a dynamic, growing organization that is investing in a way that is taking on our investors, our shareholders, and society .
Thanks, Brian. Just stay there just in case we have any questions. Do we have any questions? Brian? No? We are now going to show on the slide the resolution and the number of proxy votes that have been lodged. Thank you. There are no further questions on resolution four or three. We will go to resolution four, rights to the Chief Executive Officer.
The resolution is that for the purpose of ASX listing rule 10.14 and all other purposes, approval is given for the grant of long-term hurdled performance share rights to Australian Ethical Investment Limited's Managing Director and CEO, John McMurdo, under the Australian Ethical Executive Long-Term Incentive Plan. Are there any questions or comments on resolution four? Please. If not, we'll show the proxies. Go to resolution five. My timepiece is telling me that it is almost 11:00 A.M. on the 11th day of the 11th month. This is, of course, Remembrance Day. Remembrance Day is observed in Australia on November 11 to commemorate the loss of Australian lives in all wars and conflicts. The date marks the anniversary of the 1918 armistice that ended World War I.
A minute's silence is observed at 11:00 A.M. to honor all personnel who served or suffered while in the service of their country. Can you join me, please, in a minute's silence? We'll then go to resume the formal business of the meeting, and we go to resolution five. Resolution five. The resolution is that the remuneration report as set out in the annual report for the financial year ending 30th of June 2025 be adopted. Are there any questions or comments on resolution five? No? We'll display the resolution and the proxy, please. That concludes the formal part of the business of the meeting. Before I close the meeting, however, shareholders present who have not voted should now vote if they wish to, and shareholders online, if they have not voted and wish to, should now do so.
I will keep the voting open for another few minutes to allow anybody who hasn't voted to vote. Once I declare the meeting closed, the polls will be closed as well. We have some here. Thank you. There is a thank you.