Welcome everybody to Challenger's 2021 Full Year Results. All participant lines are currently on mute. Following the presentation, we will open the call for questions. Thank you again for joining us today. I'll hand over to our first speaker, Stu Kingham, Head of 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 Howells, 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.
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. Before we get into the results, though, I'd like to address this morning's announcement that after I've decided that now is the right time to step down and so I've notified the board of my intention to lead 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 the Challenger as a business 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 license fund management businesses are leaders in their respective market, and the recently acquired bank 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 the leader and leader of the group's operations and technology function. 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.
First up, I'll take you through an overview of the FY 2021 an overview of FY 2021 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 and A at the end of that. So reflecting on FY 2021, 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 2022 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 fund management businesses and provides a very strong base for future earnings growth. Through our refreshed corporate strategy, we have a clear plan to capture opportunity. The acquisition of the 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 2022 in very good shape and well positioned for 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 continue to deliver on our purpose to provide our customers with financial security for a better retirement. Normalized profit for the year was within guidance range 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 reposition portfolio in some more detail.
Statutory net profit after tax included over $500,000,000 of investment market gains. This reflects the reversal of the unrealized market losses we experienced during the pandemic sell off in 2020. Both our large and fundraising businesses delivered standout growth. Challenger Life achieved record sales of CNY7 billion as well as strong growth in investment assets, which were up 18%. Fund Management also continued strong growth trajectory with fund increasing by more than 30% and has really strong momentum going into the New Year.
And pleasingly, our acquisition of My Life My Finance, 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 have 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. Touching first on our Life business, which delivered strong sales and book growth in FY 2021. Total Life sales reached a record $6,900,000,000 up 35% on last year, underlying the success of our strategy to diversify our product offering and diversify our distribution. 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% this year. This outcome also reflects our quality customer offering. So we achieved a high customer satisfaction level of 91%. Institutional sales were incredibly strong in life with growth of 53% over the year. Pursuant to our diversification strategy, we focused on building relationships with a wide range of institutional clients, including profits and 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 profits and 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 the retirement phase. In Japan, our relationship with MX Primary continues to deliver strong results with annuity sales of around A800 $1,000,000 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 has 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 3rd largest and one of the fastest growing active fund managers. Last year, fund management firm grew by 30% to RMB106 1,000,000,000. This exceptional growth was driven by record net flows of RMB16 1,000,000,000 which represented 20% of opening fund.
Our multi boutique business for Dante Partners was also the number one 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 capability and for the quality of our product. In the institutional market, this is evidenced by the fact that our clients include 45 out of the top 50 Australian Superfunds. While in retail, we were awarded distributor of the year by Zenith Partners, a much coveted acknowledgement of the strength of our distribution in retail.
Ferrante has a proven track record of achieving superior investment performance as well, and 2021 was no exception. 92% of some is outperforming the benchmark over 3 years. Ferranje is also focused on expanding into offshore markets in cases where there's the 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 My Life, My Finance 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 $700,000,000,000 the term deposit market represents 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 plan to build relationships directly with customers and complements 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 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 an earning appropriate risk adjusted return for our shareholders. In FY 2021, as we previously guided, our more defensive portfolio and our enhanced risk settings along with the high levels of cash and liquid, 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, then group target ROE, then cash plus 12%.
Importantly, we can achieve this target despite the tight investment environment. For FY 2022, 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 us 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 1st Challenger results briefing, and I'd like to start by calling out the whole Challenger team and thank them who've 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 twenty twenty two. Now looking at the results in detail. Normalized net profit before tax was $396,000,000 and within our $390,000,000 to $440,000,000 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 $279,000,000 and was down 19%. Investment experience was very significant at over $300,000,000 post tax with the reversal of the unrealized market losses from last year.
Significant items were $5,000,000 and relate to transaction costs from our recent My Life, My Finance bank acquisition and the closure of the Sazante boutique. With a strong investment experience outcome, Statutory net profit after tax was $592,000,000 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 $542,000,000 We have recorded positive investment experience across all asset classes. For fixed income, credit spreads have tightened and are back to pre pandemic levels, resulting in the unrealized investment losses fully reversing. With no major credit default in the period, we recorded $383,000,000 of investment experience gains on the fixed income portfolio.
For property, the $55,000,000 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 $57,000,000 and were gained across both portfolios. The alternative portfolio consists of absolute return funds and general and life insurance exposure and posted a gain of $47,000,000 driven by strong performance in the absolute return portfolio. The policy liabilities, which are also mark to market, the valuation impact was an $87,000,000 loss and reflects 2 things.
Firstly, dollars 183,000,000 illiquidity premium loss, which is simply a non cash item from using a lower discount rate to value policy liabilities and secondly, a gain of $96,000,000 on policy liabilities from inflation linked and semi government security held for hedging purposes. Overall, we reported a pretax investment experience profit of $455,000,000 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 $7,000,000,000 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's margin down 72 basis points to 2.6% with 2 thirds of the reduction simply being lower assumed normalized growth. With the 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 on the first half.
Expenses across the year were stable. However, life expenses in the second half increased by $12,000,000 on the first half, included some one off costs and timing impact. With lower income and stable expenses, life EBIT was $399,000,000 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 impact with the Q3 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 impact 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 profits for member sector.
We are also seeing very strong growth in institutional term annuities, a relatively new focus area for us with sales of $1,500,000,000 this year, up nearly $1,000,000,000 We are not at this stage seeing a significant impact on sales from COVID-nineteen pandemic. Advisors have already moved to interacting with their clients online and the investment teams at large group granulation funds and institutional clients have not been significantly impacted. In Japan, annuity sales were $790,000,000 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 2022. Now looking at the liability and asset portfolio. Liabilities increased by 15% this year with all key categories increasing. With 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 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 obligation. 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 yields in fixed income investments.
This will benefit future margins. We have 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 a third 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. While 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 2022 includes a reduced rental expectation as a result of the ongoing pandemic.
The alternative 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's margin trends, which reflect 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 thirds of the 72 basis points decline in loss 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 to only 5 basis points this year. The product spreads being 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 five basis points. And you'll recall, last year included a $10,000,000 or 5 basis point 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 profit increased by 26% this year from a revision in higher than expected future mortality rate, which will support life risk revenue growth. Now looking at the second half margin trend and long term trend. Life 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 margin is due to 1, 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, both 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 twenty nineteen to only 5 basis points in the second half of twenty twenty, which is below current rates. With the benefit of the early repayment of the asset backed security, the product spreads remain stable.
Turning now to capital. Challenger Life Company's position remains strong with $1,600,000,000 in excess regulatory capital, up $65,000,000 for the year. The movement for the year reflects a $710,000,000 increase in regulatory capital, partially offset by a $650,000,000 increase in the capital requirement. Regulatory capital increased from higher retained earnings, the release of capital from our UK Life Risk business and an increase in alternative Tier 1 capital. It is also worth noting during the year, we paid a one off $100,000,000 distribution from the Life Company to group to fund the acquisition of My Life, My Finance and support its initial growth phase.
The life risk capital release of $200,000,000 relates to the restructure of 2 wholesale longevity transactions in our life risk business. The restructuring capital release can be thought of as an upfront payment of future expected cash flow. The increase in regulatory capital also includes an additional $68,000,000 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 a new instrument, resulting in a net increase in alternative Tier 1 equity.
The regulatory capital requirement increased by $646,000,000 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 high 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 1.81 times to 1.63 times. However, the average PCA ratio through the period was higher at 1.67 times following our decision to enhance our capital setting.
As we head into FY 2022, 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 and Poor's A credit rating of Challenger Life with a stable outlook reaffirmed in November. In addition to Life's $1,600,000,000 of excess capital, we also held over $200,000,000 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 $100,000,000,000 Average FUM increased by 15% and FUM based income increased by 16% with an expansion in the FUM based margin, 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 BUM with performance and transaction fees down $10,000,000 Expense control was strong, down 2%. With the operating leverage this business enjoys, EBIT increased by 23%. Looking more closely at net flows and Ferdante Partners' investment performance.
Funds Management achieved record net flows of $16,000,000,000 representing 20% of opening period BUM, making Ferdante Funds Management one of the fastest growing active managers in the country. Ferdante Partners net flows were $14,300,000,000 for the year, up significantly on last year and 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 a continuation of Vedante's superior investment performance. Since inception, 91% of the FUM has outperformed benchmark and 84% of funds have achieved 1st 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 $9,000,000 As a result, the lower performance and 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 the 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 thirds of the growth coming from net flows. BUM increased in all but one boutique and 3 boutiques experienced BUM breaking through $10,000,000,000 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 'twenty two. 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 margin. This provides strong platform to translate book growth into earnings growth.
I will now hand back to Richard for his comments on strategy and outlook before rejoining the call for the Q and 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 setting see us well positioned to deliver solid earnings into FY 2022 and beyond. All of this translates into an expectation of profit growth for FY 2022, with normalized net profit before tax expected to be within the range $430,000,000 to $480,000,000 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 $455,000,000 which represents a 15% increase on FY 2021, 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 2022, noting that our target is to operate at around 1.6x the Prudential capital amount. On the dividend, we will continue to target a payout ratio of between 45% 50% 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 are Australia's number one provider of guaranteed income streams and our fund management business is the 3rd largest active fund manager in the country. The acquisition of My Life, My Finance 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 $7,000,000,000,000 over the next 15 years. Baby burners were 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 SUTA 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 Superfund Trustees to ensure that the system works as well for Australians in retirement as it does in assisting them accumulate full retirement. When the covenant comes into force on 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, 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 government. 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 product offering uniquely able to address the retirement risk. We have 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 fresh 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 have challenged its product 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 2022 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, and 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 fund 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 fund management, we will build on momentum in our new boutique OX Capital and our new partnerships with Impact and Nomura. We'll also grow our client base through CIPAM's market leading credit offerings. Providing clients and customers with compelling and contemporary products is key. And this year, we will continue to focus our evolving continue to focus rather 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 toward transitioning to the Challenger 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 3rd focus area. This includes leveraging our leading capabilities in IT to integrate our bank and to support its immediate growth. Responsible investing is an increasing priority for our stakeholders and reflecting this, we will continue to embed ESG capability across our investment platform.
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 return as we seek to deliver on our purpose to our customers, shareholders and to the community. In closing, today's results demonstrate Challengers' 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 ambitious 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 that 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'll now pass the call back to the operator. Thank you.
Thank you, and welcome to the Q and A session. The first question comes from Andrey Stadnik from MS. Please go ahead.
Good morning. Can you hear me okay? Yes, thank you. Thank you. 2nd time lucky.
Can I ask two questions please? Can I ask firstly on sales and the impact from COVID? You said there's been minimal impact from the lockdown 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 lockdown? Yes.
I think that the lockdown really has impacted post year end. So I guess July and into August has been where you'd expect that to bite. I would say we finished the year with strong momentum. When I look at things like the daily run rates and flight volumes and so forth, I think the retail franchise is in really good news. Niche.
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. Thank you. And my second question around Vedanta and funds management. Is there an opportunity for Vedanta to pivot to private credit funds? Given you've got the expertise already in Challenger, given that the global growth opportunity and also given the capital light nature of that kind of business?
Yes. So great question, Andre. And let me just say more broadly, one of the fantastic things about Vedanta'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 impacts 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 in to 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 SIPAM 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 fund management business more broadly. Hopefully that answers your question, gentlemen. Thank you.
Thank you, Anjay. The next question comes from Simon Fitzgerald from A&P. Please go ahead.
Thank you for taking my questions. 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? 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 UK based security. It was pretty much a one off that the request of the other side, we don't look to have this as a repeatable event, but these things do come about.
Okay. Thank you. And then my second two questions, Mr. Howes. Just firstly, on the guidance, you talked about the middle of the range representing 15% growth.
You talked about it being a 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-nineteen.
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 how what sort of events or issues could happen that see you at the top end of that range?
Thanks, Simon. So first to say that is our best expectation at this point. And as you said, that would be us deliver well, a growth of 15% 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 fund. 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 $50,000,000 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 'twenty one that we saw was new business written to new institutions at margins done lower than Challenger would normally do to attract that business. And it was called out today that that's a new 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, and thanks for the question. It's a good one. Obviously, we saw both a rapid push out in credit spreads in response to the early phase of the pandemic and then really an unprecedented tightening on the bank of Central Bank intervention. And this at a time where we've been developing a real focus on broadening relationships.
And we had a number of those relationships and transactions in the pipeline. And with a view to the life cycle value of those relationships, as you said, we wrote business at margins that were slightly tighter than would have been consistent with our ROE targets and higher 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 our 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.
Excellent. Thank you. Very clear.
Thanks, Simon.
Thank you, Simon. Thank you, Simon. The next question comes from Andrew Bonncomb from Macquarie. Please go ahead.
Hi, thanks for taking my questions. 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.
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 with in terms of the tenant 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 arm's 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 the minority stake in Challenger is 1st 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 assets 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 for potential cooperation, whether that's in sort of product development and comparing those 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. You made a comment in the Amos pack that you think there'll be a slight impact on rent deferrals going into FY 2022. 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 lock downs are going to be on rental abatements 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 I compare what our rental receipts were expected to be in FY 2022 when we stood there pre the pandemic. They're definitely lower, and so we've built that into our guidance. The recent lockdown do have the potential, obviously, to move that as well.
Okay. That's it for me. Thank you. And just to add to that, sorry, and I'll be pretty sure to say this. It's worth reminding you that the portfolio is very defensively positioned.
Our retail assets are neighborhood, so our shopping centers anchored by major supermarkets predominantly. And then within our office portfolio, there's a large proportion of the rental receipts that come from the government. In fact, the aggregate across the entire portfolio, the government represents 30% of that rental role. So it is a defensive portfolio. We're less exposed to those sorts of impacts than a more typical real estate portfolio.
But that's it. It is one of the reasons why we have a range on our guidance. Great. Thank you.
Thank you, Andrew. The next question comes from Brett Lee from Velocity Trade. Please go ahead.
Thanks very much. All the best, Richard, for wherever you're going. I'm sorry to see you leave Challenger.
Appreciate it.
But let me get on
to my question. The guidance for the margin of 2.5% for FY 'twenty two, I did the calculation of what the margin would be based on your life front book economic slide from the 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 of margins. And I don't have an expectation of further margin decline, just to sort of answer that question directly, Brent. What I would say that the Front Book Economics slide is it's necessarily a simplification. Our business, of course, comprises multiple durations 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 out of that from an economic slide. Thanks for your question. I'll also miss our exchanges as well.
Thank you. And one further question. The $9,000,000 software write off, is that related to some cloud computing?
What was that about?
That was the opportunity that we had. We put a new general ledger system, etcetera, 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 'twenty two.
Okay. There are all the questions I have. Thank you.
Thank you. Thanks, Brett.
Thank you, Brett. The next question comes from James Cordukes from Credit Suisse. Please go ahead.
Good morning, everyone. Just a question on the CRE margin. So you outlined at the Investor Day expectations for 2021 of a CRE margin of 2.45%. You came in at 2.6%. I guess the ABS is 6 basis points, but there's probably another 10 ish that are still like unaccounted for.
What was the driver of the stronger than expected CRE margin?
Look, the other half, you're right, was largely from returns across our non guaranteed investment income business, including absolute return fund distributions, equity distributions and property distributions. So that you're right, that's the other half.
All right. Thank you. And look, just a question on your maturities guidance. So you've talked to maturities of 27% in FY 2022. I can see a $1,000,000,000 of that relates to the institutional term annuity book.
How are you thinking about that $1,000,000,000 I mean, do you think it will get rolled? Like, is the client feedback pretty good on the product? Or could that extend into a bigger relationship?
Yes. I think we definitely do take a broad view of these relationships, James. And as we said at the time of the Q3 operating update, we're sort of viewing the life cycle of the relationship as being important. I think in the context of the retirement income covenant, I'm really pleased with 125% increase in profits for member fund AUM within the life business because that can form the those relationships can form the platform for broader discussions, including around retirement income. But then specifically as to the reinvestment rates on these products, yes, we're optimistic on our ability to roll that business and to roll it at margins, which are consistent with our ROE targets.
All right. Thank you.
Thank you, James. The next question comes from Matt Dungar from Bofa. Please go ahead.
Thank you very much, guys. My questions have been answered. I'll leave it there.
Good to hear from
you anyway, Matt. Thank you, Matt. The next question comes from Kieran Chigi from Jarden. Please go ahead.
Hi, Kieran.
Just had a couple of questions around the spread margin trajectory into 'twenty two, which signals sort of around 2.5%, which I guess is sort of fairly stable ex the ABS one off in second half. But just to unpack some of the moving parts, I'd be keen to get your views around a couple of the drivers. You've called out sort of life risk present value future profits jumping quite a bit sort of in the order of 25% into year end. What sort of benefit does that have sort of on my math sort of that's around 5, 6 basis points into next year?
So yes, I think that's totally reasonable. So the average life of the life of this book is about 17 years. It's got a long tail. To the extent that we've had a 20% 27% uplift in the present value of future profits on that, that does translate into an uplift into the earnings that then come through and normalized earnings over time. So the sorts of numbers you put out there, it seems reasonable,
yes. Okay. And then on the asset mix, I mean, you've suggested the composition won't change much through 'twenty two. I just want to clarify, are you talking sort of the mix between broad asset classes? Or are you also talking about sort of the mix beneath the surface, such as credit ratings within the cash and fixed income book?
Yes. Okay, great. So the overarching statement is about the aggregate asset allocation. There's always a little bit of room for movement then within those. Although having said that, we sit at 2, Anthony Christians, specifically at 79% investment grade.
We have sort of a target to operate at about at a minimum of 75%. And on average, over the last number of years, we've operated around that 75% range. So there is some room to move there. But I don't expect material moves in
terms of composition at this point. Okay. And in broad terms, is it possible to sort of quantify what the broad change in asset mix at sort of year end relative to the average through 'twenty one contributes in basis point terms to the margin in 'twenty two?
Yes. Look, we haven't done that exercise specifically in terms of margin. Obviously, the deployment of cash and liquids over the period has contributed to the strong earnings growth that we've got and that, of course, then filters through into margin and ROE. But I haven't translated that into specifically down to that sort of some of the parts. As you know, we kind of in terms of running the business, we more do that from AM.
We're very focused on the ROE side of things.
Yes. Yes. I guess sort of the question is with life risk being stronger and the asset mix sort of assisting as well into next year, something's obviously offsetting that, which is probably the lag impact of product margins being a bit softer. If that's all awash sort of in 'twenty two, has that sort of lag impact around sort of the repricing changes you've made on annuities and where credit spreads are sitting today. Has that, in your mind, fully worked through the book by the end of 'twenty two?
Or is there more risk of further pressure on some product margins beneath the surface as we look into 'twenty three?
No. I think as I what I can say about the FY 'twenty two margin is it sort of fully reflects the onboarding of the business that we wrote in Q3. So the fact that that was a part of spreads is reflected in there. As I said earlier, I think there's more the same tailwinds we talk about to ROE being the potential to normalize investment conditions providing opportunities to outperform. Our ROE targets are relevant to margin as well.
And at this stage, I would say I'm expecting stable margins into FY 'twenty two and from there.
Okay. And just one final question on a different subject. The treasury position paper that you touched on, which came out in July. Just quickly, I mean, was there anything out of that that was sort of at the margin different to expectations? And post that, has are you seeing a pickup in discussions with potential clients?
What's sort of the action behind the scenes in terms of people getting ready for 1 July next year?
Yes. It's really it's a really important reform. It's really good to have the discussion paper out there. It's great that we're on track for it coming into effect in 1 July 2022. It's pleasing that it both requires trustees to have a strategy for their members in retirement and that they give effect to that and they've got to implement that strategy.
And it's also important that it has talked about needing to have objectives, including managing risks and longevity risk being explicitly called out. So I think it's a really important reform and I applaud the progress that Senator Kim and the government are making on that more broadly. Yes, we already had high engagement with large super funds, and this is sort of, I guess, accelerating some of the urgency there. And so, they're very busy running workshops and having high levels of engagement with those clients. And we think this important reform will be good for the business.
I'll leave it there. Thank you.
Thanks, Darren.
Thank you, Kieran. The next question comes from Anthony Hu. Please go ahead.
Good morning, guys. Most of my questions have been answered, but just got a couple of small ones. Firstly, just on your Life COE margin, the second half margin was 253 excluding the repayment early repayment. And you're saying that FY 2022 expected to be stable at around 2.5%. Are you intending to signal that that's a stronger number than what you told us at the Investor Day, which is 245?
And then second question was just around the new business tenure, which is down quite significantly FY 2021 versus the previous year, partly due to MS Primary sales that you talked about earlier. Now should we expect that that's you said earlier that you're not concerned with the volumes that the sales coming from MS Primary being shorter term, but should we expect any impact on your returns and that's a headwind from the lower tenure?
Thanks for your question. I'll take the tenure one first. As I said, the MSP relationship gives us the 3 to 20 year maturity level and so there's been a little change in mix there. Having our high institutional term annuity sales, which has represented 38% of our sales, this also has given a change in our tenure. But I think really the important thing for us is we are focused on long term sales and that our retail tenure remains stable at around 7 years.
So that's the important number for us to focus on as a total. In relation to signaling stronger margin, look, we did call out 2.45 at Investor Day. And as you rightly say, we've really finished 2.53 when you strip that out. We there needs to be some flexibility as you've seen as different things can move, etcetera. But we believe 2.5 is a stable margin that we are expecting and that's what we've used for our profit guidance for the year.
Okay. Thanks.
Thank you, Anthony. The next question comes from Nigel Pidaway from Citi. Please go ahead.
Good morning. Just a question on Slide 9. I mean, obviously, there you identified quite a number of things that can improve the ROE if they were to occur. And yet sort of in FY 'twenty two, you're saying you're going to reach the target without really much of those going your way. So I was just sort of question philosophically, how far do you think your target is below sort of a cross cycle ROE potential?
Because it does seem as if that target is relatively low in the scheme of things relative to what you could achieve if the environment were a little bit better.
Yes. So Nigel, thanks for the question. We are reflecting current investment market conditions into the guidance that we're providing then and current interest rates as well. So to the extent that you see a normalization of spreads and risk premium more broadly and to the extent we see higher interest rates, they would both contribute to higher ROE. So in that sense, it is reflecting difficult investment conditions and there's more upsides and downsides.
But to sort of quantify that would depend a little bit on how long the pace is staying in terms of how far would things normalize and by when. So I wouldn't want to do that, but I think directionally what you're suggesting is reasonable.
So I mean, just in terms of sort of setting a target that's sort of at the low end, I mean, is that can you sort of maybe comment on that logic?
Well, we wanted to set a target that reflected prevailing conditions. I don't know. I'm not sure when the Central Bank crowding out of private sector credit formation is going to end and QA more broadly. And we also, in the current environment, want to put the business on a firm footing with both sustainable capital settings and a target that is representative of the tight conditions that we see in front of us. If we have a if we see a normalization of investment markets and that gives us an opportunity to outperform that target, there's each in that, but that will be a good position to be in.
So we wanted to have a solid target that we felt reflected the current environment. Okay. Thank you. Thanks, Nigel.
Thank you, Nigel. The next question comes from Sean Ler from Morningstar. Please go ahead.
Hi, good morning, everyone. I've just got a couple of questions. The first one would be a follow-up to Kieran's question. I was wondering if you could elaborate more on the, I guess, opportunities and trends you are seeing on the retirement income covenant side of things. I mean, given there's no hard requirement to offer a default product, one could argue there's upside from your partnerships with Superfunds, but one could also argue that there's much more options compared to NDA and thus you could be seeding more market share moving forward.
Yes. I think there's a lot there are a lot of upsides that are created by the covenants. It's not prescriptive. It's not just a complex of prescriptive legislation. It's not the government saying to each fund, you need to do this in this product.
Instead, it is providing a duty to trust these to have a strategy for their members in retirement and to give effect to that strategy and to have objectives, including managing risks in retirement. Now you'll see different funds take different approaches in that, I'm sure. But amongst that, the simplicity and reliability and strong performance that is provided by carving out the most expensive part of the portfolio and putting that into an inflation linked lifetime income stream is something that we know a lot of our clients provide find very compelling. And we expect that to generate strong tailwinds for us. But different funds will do different things.
Thank you, Sean. We have no further questions at this stage. I'll now hand back over for any additional or closing remarks.
Thank you, operator. We have no questions online. That will conclude our briefing today. Thank you for your participation. If you have any further questions, please feel free to get in touch with either Mark or Michael.
Thank you.
That concludes Challenger's 2021 full year results. Thank you once again for joining us today and for your interest in Challenger. You may all disconnect.