Pension Fund Committee 04 December 2020 Item 5 LGPS
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Pension Fund Committee 04 December 2020 Item 5 LGPS CENTRAL POOLING UPDATE Introduction 1. This report continues the series of updates requested by Committee on progress towards delivering investment pooling. It summarises the main activity since the last update presented in September. Recommendation 2. The Committee is asked to note the position as set out in the report. LGPS Central Joint Committee 3. The LGPS Central Joint Committee is a public forum for the Councils within the LGPS Central Pool (the Pool) to provide oversight of the delivery of the objectives of the Pool, the delivery of client service, the delivery against the LGPS Central business case and to deal with common investor issues. 4. The Joint Committee provides assistance, guidance and recommendations to the individual Councils in connection with specific pooling functions taking into consideration the conflicting demands and interests of the participants within the Pool. The Joint Committee does not have delegated authority to make binding decisions on behalf of the participating Councils. 5. The Joint Committee is a public meeting and Cheshire West and Chester Council act as clerk to the Joint Committee. 6. The Joint Committee usually meets twice yearly in spring and autumn. The spring 2020 meeting was cancelled due to the impact of Covid-19 at that time. The autumn 2020 meeting was held on 20 November. The meeting was held successfully via MS Teams with a live webcast available for public viewing 7. The roles of chair and vice chair rotate annually between partner funds. Given the cancellation of the spring 2020 meeting, the November meeting elected Councillor Biggins from Shropshire as Chair and Councillor Hogg as Vice Chair for the coming year. 8. Members of the public can submit written questions to the Joint Committee. For the November meeting seventeen questions were received. Recognising that the spring meeting was cancelled Joint Committee exercised discretion, for one occasion only, to extend the usual fifteen-minute time allocation for responding to public questions. The questions and responses will be published. 9. The Joint Committee received a report on the work of the Practitioner Advisory Forum, the officer working group which supports the Joint Committee and the Shareholder Forum in the delivery of pooling. Key activity included Page 51 of 112 Pension Fund Committee 04 December 2020 Item 5 Client related activity • Scrutiny of investment performance of pooled investment funds. • Pooled product launches and new product development. • Approval of key performance indicators for 2020-21. Shareholder related activity • Reviewing the outturn forecasts provided by the Company. • Discussions with the Company regarding future office accommodation as the lease on current accommodation comes to an end in spring 2021. 10. The updated pooling risk register was also reviewed. The risk register reflects the risks to the Investment Pool in its widest definition rather than individual Partner Funds or the Company. 11. The final item on the Joint Committee agenda was a presentation from LGPS Central Ltd providing an update on the company and information on the performance of each of its pooled investment funds. 12. The Joint Committee papers are publicly available on the Fund’s website at https://www.cheshirepensionfund.org/members/wp- content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Joint-Committee-Papers.pdf Investment performance 13. The Fund is invested in three investment products provided by the company, the Climate Factor Fund, the Global Active Equity Fund and the Private Equity 2019 vintage. Performance of the two pooled funds and the Private Equity partnership is included in the regular reporting presented to Investment Sub-Committee. 14. Extracts from the company presentation to Joint Committee on the performance of the investment products that the Cheshire Fund is invested in are attached in Appendix A for Committee’s information. 15. As previously reported, the Global Active Equity Fund is below target but by a decreasing margin as more recent performance begins to recover the initial bumpy start of this fund. The Climate Factor Fund continues to meet its index tracking benchmark whilst also making positive contributions to climate outcomes by having an improved climate footprint. Asset transition 16. There was no scheduled further transfer of Fund assets into the pool since the last report to Committee. 17. Following the decision of this Committee to invest in the pooled Emerging Market Debt Fund, officers are working with the company and other investee partner funds to secure a smooth transition of assets in the coming weeks. Page 52 of 112 Pension Fund Committee 04 December 2020 Item 5 18. It had been planned to present the business case for the Fund’s investment in the new pooled Multi Asset Credit Fund to this meeting. However, the company has not yet finalised the procurement of managers for this fund. Hence that investment case will now be presented to a future meeting, most likely March 2021. 19. Discussions continue about launching pooled funds for infrastructure and direct property, with company targeting these for launch by spring 2021. Page 53 of 112 Pension Fund Committee 04 December 2020 THIS PAGE HAS BEEN INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK Page 54 of 112 Classified as Confidential Joint Committee Meeting Extract from LGPS Central Limited Update Originally Presented 20th November 2020 LGPS Central Limited is authorised and regulated by the PageFinancial 55 of 112 Conduct Authority. Registered in England. Registered No: 10425159. Registered Office: Mander House, Mander Centre, Wolverhampton, WV1 3NB 1 Classified as Confidential LGPS Central All World Passive Equity Climate MF Fund 15 10 5 0 Performance (%) Performance Oct-19 Nov-19 Dec-19 Jan-20 Feb-20 Mar-20 Apr-20 May-20 Jun-20 Jul-20 Aug-20 Sep-20 -5 -10 LGPS CENTRAL FUND BENCHMARK -15 Source: LGPS Central Limited Page 56 of 112 LGPS Central Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Registered in England. Registered No: 10425159. Registered Office: Mander House, Mander Centre, Wolverhampton, WV1 3NB 2 Classified as Confidential LGPS Central All World Passive Equity Climate MF Fund FUND INCEPTION TOTAL POOLED PERFORMANCE BENCHMARK TRACKING RELATIVE WITHIN (ACS-PASSIVE) DATE ASSETS UNDER SINCE SINCE ERROR Vs. TARGET? MANAGEMENT INCEPTION INCEPTION BENCHMARK (%) (%) (%) (%) LGPS Central All World Passive Equity Climate Oct-2019 £2,274m +9.60 +9.46 0.10 +0.14 Yes Multi Factor Fund Highlights & Outlook INVESTORS (2) AMOUNT (£m) West Midlands 1,713 • Fund is meeting its tracking error target Cheshire 561 Key • Small outperformance versus index since launch in October Performance Source: LGPS Central Limited 2019 Indicator • 44% reduction in carbon emissions and 79% reduction in fossil fuel reserves versus FTSE All World index • Fund also has exposure to five style factors including “quality” Page 57 of 112 LGPS Central Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Registered in England. Registered No: 10425159. Registered Office: Mander House, Mander Centre, Wolverhampton, WV1 3NB 3 Classified as Confidential FTSE AW Climate Balanced Comprehensive Factor Climate Characteristics – 12 months to 30 September 2020 versus FTSE All World Fossil Fuel Reserves 79% lower Green Revenues 41% higher Reserves Green 3328 3500 4 3.36 Revenues 3000 3.5 2500 3 2.38 2.5 2000 2 1500 1.5 1000 698 1 500 0.5 0 0 FTSE All World FTSE AW Climate FTSE All World FTSE AW Climate Balanced Balanced Comprehensive Metric Tons Metric per Equity m$ Comprehensive Proportion Proportion total of revenue % Carbon Emissions Intensity Weighted Average Carbon Emissions 44% lower Intensity 300 29% lower WA 255 Carbon Emissions 200 173 250 Carbon Emissions 200 150 122 142 150 100 100 50 50 0 FTSE All World FTSE AW Climate 0 Metric Metric Tons/$m Revenue Balanced Comprehensive Metric Tons/$m Revenue FTSE All World FTSE AW Climate Balanced Comprehensive * Source: FTSE Page 58 of 112 LGPS Central Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Registered in England. Registered No: 10425159. Registered Office: Mander House, Mander Centre, Wolverhampton, WV1 3NB 4 Classified as Confidential LGPS Central Global Equity Active MM Fund 20 15 10 5 Performance (%) Performance 0 -5 LGPS CENTRAL FUND TARGET -10 Source: LGPS Central Limited Page 59 of 112 LGPS Central Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Registered in England. Registered No: 10425159. Registered Office: Mander House, Mander Centre, Wolverhampton, WV1 3NB 5 Classified as Confidential LGPS Central Global Equity Active MM Fund FUND INCEPTION TOTAL POOLED PERFORMANCE BENCHMARK TARGET RELATIVE RELATIVE (ACS-ACTIVE) DATE ASSETS UNDER SINCE SINCE SINCE Vs. Vs. MANAGEMENT INCEPTION INCEPTION INCEPTION BENCHMARK TARGET (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) LGPS Central Global Equity Active Multi Mar-2019 £2,443m +10.17 +11.72 +13.22 -1.55 -3.05 Manager Fund Highlights & Outlook INVESTORS (6) AMOUNT (£m) • “Growth” companies significantly outperforming “value”, which has West Midlands 902 negatively impacted fund performance Staffordshire 576 Key Performance • Changed weightings away from “value” manager to “growth” managers Leicestershire 387 Indicator • Schroders and Union outperformed their performance objective for the 12 month period to end September 2020 Cheshire 285 • The Fund’s carbon footprint is 33% below that of the index, and over 4oo Shropshire 271 engagements undertaken by our stewardship partners