7 WALES PENSION PARTNERSHIP UPDATE PDF 138 KB
To consider
the report
Decision:
DECISION
To accept and note
the information
Minutes:
The Investment Manager submitted a report, providing a formal update to members on the developments of the Wales Pension
Partnership (WPP). It was reported
that the collaboration continued to go from strength to strength since it had been established in 2017 and by 31 March 2021, 81% of Gwynedd's
fund had been pooled with the WPP. It was noted that the performance was 'very satisfactory' with a number of developments in the pipeline, including the transfer of a proportion of Emerging Markets from Fidelity
to the WPP fund. This would bring the total of Gwynedd's pooled investments to 83%.
It was noted that the Fund was performing substantially higher than the benchmark on a regular basis; that the Investment Panel meetings
were a good opportunity to question and challenge Managers;
and although the Covid situation had been a global crisis,
markets were performing strongly.
The next step in the process would be to look at the options of pooling assets to the Private Market category, which was being undertaken with the support of Hymans Robertson, with ongoing discussions taking place to determine the appropriate structure and mechanism
to invest in. It was reported that a specialist appointing advisor had been appointed to assist WPP to appoint suitable investment managers to manage the private markets allocation and that a further
tender had been released to appoint a suitable manager for infrastructure and private debt.
In the context of a member representative on the Joint Governance Committee, it was noted that each constituent
authority was currently submitting amendments to the Inter-Authority Agreement which required the approval of each Full Council - the amendments were approved by Gwynedd Council on 7 October 2021.
Gratitude was expressed for the report and to all staff associated with the work
The Chair noted that
the WPP was a successful and
effective fund with very acceptable
returns. It was reiterated that the position of the Wales fund, compared to others across the UK, was very strong and
that the good collaboration was an obvious part of the success.
During the ensuing discussion, the following observations were made by members:
·
That the report noted performance that was 'safonol iawn' in the
Welsh version, but noted ‘very satisfactory’ in English, which
appeared to be a better description of the situation / performance - need to reconsider the Welsh turn of phrase.
·
That the transfers to date had been very
encouraging - the remaining
transfers would pose the greatest challenges.
To accept and note the information