Australian superannuation fund HESTA has sold its remaining shares in Mineral Resources Ltd. over concerns the Australian mining company is not properly addressing governance issues. The A$91 billion ($58.3 billion) pension fund concluded that MinRes is “unable to make the changes we believe necessary to restore investor confidence.”
The sale of the remaining stake follows a reduction in the fund’s investment in the company last year, when HESTA—Health Employees Superannuation Trust Australia—put MinRes on its watch list. MinRes announced in November 2024 that Founder and Managing Director Chris Ellison would step down after an internal investigation found he used company resources for his personal use. However, the resignation date was set for 18 months after the announcement: May 2026.
“Last year we outlined our concerns that the managing director’s succession timeframe did not reflect the seriousness of the issues, and the issues indicated a systemic failure of governance,” HESTA CEO Debby Blakey said in a statement. “We have since regularly engaged with senior leaders and directors at the business to encourage action we believe necessary to restore investor confidence.”
The divestment announcement comes just a few weeks after three MinRes board directors—Denise McComish, Jacqueline McGill and Susan Corlett, who made up the entire ethics and governance committee—suddenly resigned, with no explanation made by the company. The ethics and governance committee had been created after Ellison’s resignation.
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Despite no longer holding any investments in MinRes, HESTA announced it intends to maintain a “watching brief” on the company. Any future investment in MinRes would be conditional on the company showing “a demonstrated pathway to address our serious governance concerns, an effective mechanism to prevent similar issues occurring in future, and a timely and orderly succession of the managing director,” according to HESTA.
Its statement termed the board resignations “a significant step backwards in seeking to address the serious governance concerns,” adding that “we don’t currently see a path to our concerns being addressed.”
The superfund also announced that it put Australian logistics software firm WiseTech Global Ltd. on its watch list in response to governance, leadership and culture concerns.
“We believe developments in recent months call into question the company’s ability to make the necessary changes to restore investor confidence,” Blakey said in a statement. “Our concerns relate to the conduct and actions of the executive chair, the lack of independence of the WiseTech board, and uncertainty regarding company leadership and succession.”
As with MinRes, HESTA’s announcement expressed concern when four independent, non-executive members of the company’s board resigned. The company attributed the resignation to “intractable differences in the Board and differing views around the ongoing role of the Founder and Founding CEO, Richard White.”
White stepped down as CEO in October 2024, following media reports that he misled the firm’s board about having close personal relationships with an employee, as well as an employee of one of the WiseTech’s suppliers. Despite his resignation, the company announced he would take a “short leave of absence,” then return as a full-time consultant.
“We believe the company has a critical and immediate opportunity to appoint highly skilled and genuinely independent directors, to demonstrate a sustained focus on succession, and provide comprehensive and transparent disclosure,” HESTA announced. “Taking these actions will begin to provide investors with confidence that WiseTech is taking appropriate action.”
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Tags: Australia, Debby Blakey, HESTA, Mineral Resources, MinRes, Superannuation, WiseTech
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