HESTA is Australia’s largest pension fund dedicated to people in the health and community services sector. It has operated for more than 30 years, has over 850,000 members and manages more than A$46 billion* of members’ assets.
It is one of the few pension funds that focuses on employees within the health and community services (HACS) sector where part of its impact investing strategy is to help create jobs for its members in HACS.
HESTA is also keen to be a market leader, developing new approaches to impact investing that can attract other large investors, thereby making a positive difference to society and environment for all its members.
Whilst its impact investments need to reflect risk adjusted returns similar to what HESTA would expect from its traditional portfolio, the impact investment strategy allows for small investments and provides more flexible funding in terms of tenure and repayment profile - this was key to developing the organisation’s early expertise in impact investments.