Issue - meetings

66.1     The Committee considered a report introduced by Russell Wood and David O’Hara who drew the Committees attention to the following points:

1)      The PIRC benchmarking showed the LGPS as a whole performed well, the Fund was just below the average performance for Q4 and 1 year returns and a slightly higher return  looking at the 3 year 3 year figures.

2)      The Joint ACCESS committee have set the business plan and budget, there is a £155k contribution per council.

3)      The Fund has successfully maintained its Stewardship status (as of 21 February) the Fund will try to report in May going this year depending on resources so the report is being drafted in a time period closer to the data set it is reporting on.

4)      The first PRI report was submitted this year, the Fund is over the median score for all areas and at least 4 stars for all items, the report will be submitted again in June/July. The Fund is well above the median and this is an achievement.

5)      The Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) Investment Consultancy and Fiduciary Management Market Investigation Order 2019 has an annual requirement for all LGPS funds to submit a compliance statement, the Fund submitted this on 4 January 2024. .

6)      Due to the timing of the November meeting the usual Quarterly Performance Report for Q3 2023 was partially incomplete, the full report has now been completed and is attached as Appendix 2 of the report.

7)      The Quarterly report for December has also not been completed in full in time for the publication for papers. Isio have provided the report as complete as possible attached as Appendix 3 of the report with the detail pages for Ruffer, UBS infrastructure, Pantheon, IFM to follow once complete.

8)      The quarterly performance was reflected a 4.3% positive absolute return and the Fund also outperformed its benchmark, there was strong performance across all markets, equity and bond markets are up significantly but some uncertainty remains regarding inflation. 

9)      The active impact public equity mandates have continued to struggle relative to their benchmarks over the last 12 months. Private equity mandates have delivered very strong performance over the 3 and 5 year periods, however the performance has been largely negative over the last 12 months.

10)    Infrastructure has mostly performed strongly over the last quarter except for UBS and Pantheon. Of the managers that have been in place for the longer term, UBS infrastructure has most significantly underperformed its benchmark. This is primarily driven by the disappointing performance of Archmore Fund I.

11)    There was outperformance in equity mandates, private equity underperformed, reflecting a period of over performance which is now starting to cool as valuations catch up.

12)    Newton’s improved performance was noted, however Ruffer have a more cautious approach which was reflected in their performance, property markets continued to struggle however Schroders have advised that they think this is flattening. Ruffer has outperformed over 5 years. Newton’s long term  ...  view the full minutes text for item 66