Issue - meetings

To consider the Investment Managers Report

To adopt the Investment Strategy Statement.

Submitted for information, a report by the Investment Manager. It was reported that the statement was reviewed every three years following valuation and that it had been discussed with the Investment Panel in May 2020. 

Attention was drawn specifically to the allocation of the Fund which reflected the transfer of global equity to the Wales Pension Partnership (WPP) Multi Assets Credit fund - which now formed a significant part of the Gwynedd Fund investments. 

Attention was drawn to a suggestion made by the Pension Board Members (20/07/20) that the statement did not highlight the risks / lessons learned of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and recent events in China. The members had suggested at that meeting that a sentence should be added to the Managers' paragraph (page 57) to illustrate that the response had been positive. A sentence constructed by Paul Potter (Hymans Robertson) was proposed, to illustrate that the Managers had been proactive and positive during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Although accepting of the logic, it was considered that this was the day-to-day work of any Manager and it was often too late to make changes after an unexpected shock - the skill was to predict any changes. In response, the Head of Finance noted that the statement did not attempt to describe what the Assets Managers were already doing, and that it was not intended to change their brief. He added that Managers in general had responded to the change and that the Pension Board faced challenges in promoting transparency.

RESOLVED to adopt the Investment Strategy Statement.