Good afternoon to our U.S. stockholders, and good morning to our Australian CDI holders. We are pleased to welcome you all to our annual stockholder meeting, which we are holding virtually to increase access and participation. My name is Rajiv Jain, and I'm the Executive Chairman and Chief Investment Officer of GQG Partners. On behalf of the GQG board, it is my pleasure to address you at our 2024 annual meeting. Before we proceed with the business of the meeting, I would like to introduce my fellow directors. Tim Carver, our Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director, Elizabeth Proust, our Lead Independent Director, and Melda Donnelly, an independent director.
Also present today are Melodie Zakaluk, our Chief Financial Officer, Aleks Smits and Anthony Scurrah with KPMG, with the company's auditor, and Rick Sherley, the company's General Counsel and Secretary, who will act as secretary and voting inspector for the meeting. Finally, the board would like to recognize Paul Greenwood, who recently resigned as an independent director, and thank him for the years of service to the board. Mel, would you formally commence the meeting on my behalf?
Thank you, Rajiv. It is now the time set forth in the notice of meeting, which is duly given. Therefore, the meeting is properly convened. As set forth in the notice of meeting and the proxy materials, this meeting has been called for the purpose of considering and acting upon the re-election of Rajiv Jain and Tim Carver to serve as Class III directors. Stockholders and CDI holders may submit questions at any time during this meeting. To do so, please click on the Ask Question button on the virtual meeting website, type your question, and click Submit. I encourage you to submit questions as soon as possible. We will also address questions received prior to the meeting at the appropriate time during the meeting. Stockholders may vote at any time until polls are closed.
However, holders of CDIs were required to submit their voting instructions prior to the meeting, as set forth in the meeting notice, and will not be able to vote during the meeting today. Please refer to the online portal guide if you have questions. The result of the vote will be declared and released to the ASX as soon as possible after this meeting. We will give a presentation about GQG's business and respond to general questions about GQG after the vote. Rajiv, would you share some of your thoughts about GQG?
Thanks, Mel. As many of you know, we founded GQG with the vision of building an enduring institution that would outlive us, that our clients view us as partners. We hope every client and every shareholder sees in our behavior that we take seriously the stewardship of their capital. As we have said before, an important part of this is being co-investors. Not only are we majority shareholders in the business, but our team has invested meaningfully in our strategies alongside our clients. We continue to believe that we must adapt our thinking constantly in our pursuit of investment returns. This culture of adaptability permeates our organization, and we hope it will continue to make us nimble and responsive as the markets continue to evolve. Of course, we won't always get our investment decisions right, and in short term, there will be many times that we lag markets.
But we believe that our strength of the team, of our investment culture, has been a driving force in our long-term outperformance. I'm very proud of the board we have assembled. As you know, our board is made up of highly skilled, highly engaged people. Tim and I continue to be thrilled to serve our shareholders, and our independent directors bring deep experience, knowledge, and care to the board. As the largest shareholder of GQG, I remain aligned with you in my expectations that the executive team will remain completely focused on delivering to our clients and thereby creating long-term shareholder value. I'm very happy with the execution of our team in 2023 and will endeavor to continue to drive culture of engagement and focus from our professional staff. With that, I will turn it over to our CEO, Tim Carver. Tim?
Thanks, Rajiv. As always, I feel I must begin my remarks by acknowledging the skill and care that our team bring to bear for our clients. The team's commitment to excellence can be seen in their continued strong performance. As I've said before, in my opinion, we have the most talented and most committed team in the marketplace, and we will continue to do our best to develop and field a team committed to excellence. I believe our team's performance emanates from our beliefs and from our culture. We continue to believe investment management is among the most competitive businesses in the world, and we must therefore come to compete every day. We also believe that alignment is among the most underrated attributes in investment firms. We feel every client should ask: How much is your PM invested in the strategy that you are asking me to buy?
Because of this belief, we have a culture of co-investment alongside our clients. Finally, we believe that adaptability is critical to long-term success, and we therefore celebrate open-mindedness and teamwork in the pursuit of growing and learning every day. The good news is, we remain confident that if we are successful in creating a sustaining, adaptable, and intense investment culture, our business can continue to succeed in this very competitive market. I'd like to go a bit deeper on our, on our alignment with you, our shareholders, as well as our alignment with our clients. Our management team owns over 70% of the shares of our company, and Rajiv and I take absolutely zero bonuses personally. We get paid as shareholders and are therefore focused on creating shareholder value.... Moreover, our team, excluding Rajiv and me, has millions of dollars of exposure to our strategies.
This is exemplary in our industry. And of course, Rajiv and I personally have invested hundreds of millions of dollars alongside of our clients in GQG strategies. As many of you know, I believe this business begins and ends with performance. At the end of 2023, all of our strategies have outperformed their respective benchmarks on a 3- and 5-year basis. Importantly, we've been able to achieve this with substantially lower volatility than our benchmarks as well. This is an extraordinary result, and I believe underscores the health of the business. With all of this said, we recognize that these are yesterday's achievements, and to continue to thrive, we must show up again tomorrow to do our best to perform. Thanks for your continued trust in us.
It is now time to note the record date and quorum for the meeting and to commence the business of the meeting. Rick, would you please do so?
The board of directors set April 1, 2024, as the record date for this meeting. The partial count of the shares of common stock represented at the meeting, in person or by proxy, shows that the holders of more than a majority of the outstanding shares of common stock of the company entitled to vote at the meeting are represented. Therefore, I declare a quorum present and the meeting ready for the transaction of business. Rajiv, would you declare that both polls for voting to be open?
I declare the polls for voting to be open.
I note that the polls are therefore opened as of 7:08 P.M., U.S. Eastern Daylight Time. Stockholders are being asked to vote on two proposals, which are to reelect Rajiv Jain to serve as a Class III director and to reelect Tim Carver to serve as a Class III director. For these proposals to be approved, each nominee must receive the affirmative vote of the holders of a plurality of the votes cast by stockholders present in person or by proxy and entitled to vote at the meeting. All stockholders are entitled to vote at this meeting and have the ability to do so online. If you're a stockholder entitled to vote at this meeting and have not yet voted, or if you want to change your previously cast vote, please do so through the website used to access this meeting.
If you already voted by proxy, it is not necessary to vote again. If you are a CDI holder, you may not hold a vote at this meeting. All shares represented by proxy will be voted as specified in the form of proxy. Shares represented by proxy, where no vote is specified, will be voted in accordance to the recommendation of the board of directors, which is in favor of each proposal. Rajiv, would you discuss your background and suitability to serve on the board of directors with our stockholders and CDI holders?
Thank you, Rick. My role as Chief Investment Officer and Chairman of GQG Partners, combined with my 30 years of industry experience, makes me a strong candidate for reelection to the board of directors. I co-founded GQG Partners in 2016. I have served as Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors of GQG Partners, Inc., since the company was established and listed on ASX in October of 2021. I have full attendance to all board meetings and have sufficient time to devote to the board now and in the future.
Thank you, Rajiv. Tim, would you discuss your background and suitability to serve on the board of directors with our stockholders and CDI holders?
Thank you, Rick. I've served as Chief Executive Officer of GQG Partners since co-founding the firm in 2016. In this role, I am responsible for firm leadership and management of the firm's business functions. I have served as executive director of the board of directors since GQG Partners, Inc. was founded and listed on the ASX in 2021. I also am a member of the board's Risk Committee and of full attendance at all committee and board meetings. With 29 years of industry experience, I'm well qualified to be reelected to the board and have sufficient time to devote to the board now and in the future.
We will now respond to the submitted questions related to the two proposals. Rick, please review the questions.
There are no written questions to review at this time. We'll have more time for general Q&A at the end of the meeting. Rajiv, would you-
This completes the presentation of the proposal to be voted on this meeting. I now present a slide which sets out the preliminary proxy votes that were received as of the applicable cutoff times for CDIs and shares in relation to these items of the business. We will now pause for one minute to allow stockholders to make any final votes. Any votes cast before the polls close today will be counted in the final tally, along with the proxies previously received. Since everyone has now had the opportunity to vote, I declare the polls closed for the matters voted upon at this meeting.
... I note that this is as of 7:12 P.M., US Eastern Daylight Time. Polls may take some time to count to obtain the final results and verify fully. After the vote's been counted, the results will be released to the ASX as soon as possible. Mel, would you please introduce the 2023 annual report?
Thank you, Rick. I trust each of you have seen or accessed a copy of our 2023 annual report, which is available on the Investor Center section of GQG's website and on the ASX announcement platform. The 2023 annual report contains the Operating and Financial Review and financial statements, including the Independent Auditor's Report. The financial statements have been audited by KPMG. This item is the receipt and consideration of these reports. This is not a resolution to approve the reports, but rather the reports are being tabled to give stockholders and CDI holders an opportunity to ask questions about them. Now, Tim Carver, Rajiv Jain, and I will give a short presentation. Slide 4, please. As I was saying, I will take the 2023 annual report, released on sixteenth February, as read and provide a few highlights.
Net cash flow for 2023 was $10 billion, and for 2024, through April, it's $6.3 billion. At 31 December 2023, our FUM was $120.6 billion, and as at 30 April, $142 billion. Our Q1 2024 dividend is $0.03 per share and payable 27 June. Slide five, please. Here I would like to highlight the continued growth in the business, resulting in both EPS and dividends per share related to 2023 earnings exceeding $0.09 per share. Diluted EPS increased by 19% and dividends per share by 17.3%. Margins remained healthy at 74.3%. Slide six, please. Our revenue remains primarily management fees at 96.2% for 2023.
We believe a high concentration of asset-based management fees in the revenue mix relative to performance fees creates stability in the revenue stream, particularly in times of market volatility, and it's the foundation for quality earnings. We believe our weighted average management fee remains competitive and increased from 48 basis points in 2022 to 48.8 basis points in 2023. Operating expenses increased 27.3%, with approximately 60% of our expense growth related to investments to growing earnings, and the remainder focused on managing the scale of our growing business. In 2023, net operating income increased 15.7%, and net income after tax increased 18.7%. Now to Tim Carver for a discussion on investment performance and business highlights.
Thank you, Mel. If we can turn to slide 8, you'll see our performance in each of our 4 core strategies over the past 1, 3, 5, and inception to date periods. As I said earlier, my belief is that this business begins and ends with investment performance. The good news is, in the very short term, we've had exceptional performance. Although I point shareholders and investors to our longer-term performance, because I believe it is long-term performance that we're ultimately evaluated on. You'll see here in all 4 of our core strategies, we've outperformed in all of these periods, including the very long term. If you turn to slide 9, one of the important aspects of the way we manage money is that we tend to have historically strong downside protection in periods of crisis.
As you can see here in the highlighted yellow sections, we outperformed in each of these, each of these market crisis periods. Go to slide 10, you see that the result of that is very strong risk-adjusted returns. Again, I believe that sophisticated investors not only look for outperformance, but the volatility associated with that performance or the risk-adjusted returns. Here you can see our dot, which is the yellow dot in the upper left quartile, demonstrates that we have both outperformed the universe and our peer group, and we've done so with substantially lower volatility. If we go to slide 11, you'll see how we do that. We have a tendency to move our portfolios around more actively than many of our competitors, and this movement or turnover in the portfolios leads to lower volatility.
In other words, we're constantly looking for new opportunities to provide better risk-adjusted investments in the portfolio. And while we all don't always get that right, in aggregate, we've been successful in picking new places for the portfolio to move to and reducing volatility and enhancing returns as a result. This slide demonstrates on the left, the weightings in the portfolio of different sectors at different years, and the weightings in the portfolio of different sectors and different factors over time and where they are sitting today. We move to slide 12. The result of this flexibility and adaptability in the portfolios is, as you can see here, consistent high alpha, generally in the top quartile and even towards the top decile of alpha producers, and consistent low beta across our global equity portfolio.
Importantly, as we look at slide 13, you'll see that we've had very consistent rolling 5-year returns. We've outperformed on a rolling 5-year period basis in nearly every period in every product since inception. The consistency of these returns, I think, is a hallmark of why clients trust us with their capital. As we turn to slide 14, you'll see also consistency of adding FUM across the years and across the most recent quarters. I would note that we added $17 billion in 2021, $8 billion in 2022, $10 billion in 2023, and we've already, on an unaudited basis, added $6.3 billion through April in 2024. Now, importantly, we're able to add FUM in multiple channels and multiple geographies.
We turn to slide 15, you'll see that our, that our FUM is diversified nicely by strategy, where we have meaningful assets across all four of our strategies. By channel, where we have meaningful assets in institutional, in wholesale, and in sub-advisory. By region, where we have meaningful assets across multiple continents. And what you'll see is that we've had very strong, consistent flows over time across the aggregation of all of these elements. Looking at slide 16, I'd like to end the presentation in talking about how the management team has executed. One of the things we look at is, how would you as shareholders have been if management had been uninvolved? In other words, if we started the business in 2023 with 88 billion of FUM, and we had done nothing but deliver market returns, what would the results have been?
As you can see here, in addition to market returns, our team was able to deliver $10 billion of net flows and $7.5 billion of excess return in 2023. I view this as the value added from the team and use this as a measure of whether or not we are adding value on behalf of our shareholders. With that, I'll turn to Rajiv, who can talk for a minute about the investment, the current investment environment in which we're operating.
Thanks, Tim. So as Tim said, the last 12 months have been particularly strong. We started 2023 on a little bit softer note, and as the data points began to change, our portfolios evolved like they did in the second half of 2021. So since the first quarter of last year, end of first quarter of last year, the portfolios have done, you know, have done really well. But I think more, it's more important to see what the 3-, 5-year and since inception returns are, and they continue to be fairly strong.
We feel that from a market perspective, we are in an environment where, with the interest rates where they are, particularly in developed markets, the valuations are a little bit stretched, generally speaking. We, you know, we have to be more vigilant, you know, in terms of changing crosscurrents. However, the corporate earnings growth seems to have been reasonably robust, which has sort of underpinned the markets. The whole AI revolution still seems unabated. I think we have clearly benefited from the changing investment theme within the technology space, but also some of the new themes have emerged, which we feel should serve us well on a go-forward basis. As Tim said, we are not anchored to one or any particular trends.
Our job is to adapt, and we would not be right all the time. We obviously, we will make our mistakes, but over the long run, hopefully it keeps us on the right side of the markets and where the earnings are, and hopefully add more value for our clients and hence to our shareholders. Rick?
As I mentioned, general questions about the reports or any questions about the auditor on the audit and the auditor's report can be submitted via the virtual platform. If you have a question specifically regarding the audit, please ensure you direct the question to Aleks Smits and Anthony Scurrah. We will now address any other general business questions. It appears we do not have any properly submitted written questions. Rajiv, would you close the meeting?
We appreciate your attendance at today's meeting. Thank you, and have a great day. The meeting is now closed.