This mandate round-up includes: GES Investment Services, Strathclyde Pension Fund, Gartmore Group pension scheme, Pension Insurance Corporation (PIC), Pension Consulting Alliance and CalSTRS.
The Strathclyde Pension Fund hires GES for two-way engagement
One of UK's largest asset owners, Strathclyde Pension Fund, has appointed GES Investment Services to engage with both its investee companies as well as with its investment managers, thereby adding leverage to its Responsible Investment strategy.
The £10bn Strathclyde Pension Fund takes engagement on environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues to a new level by hiring GES for not only company engagement but also investment manager engagement. This means that GES will work with the Fund's investment managers to ensure minimal impact on the investment process and to co-ordinate engagement strategies. GES will also provide engagement profile reports to the Fund detailing investment manager engagement performance and recommendations for improvement.
According to data held by Pension Funds Online Strathclyde Pension Fund is one of the largest local authority pension funds in the UK and ranks among the top 20 in the list of all UK pension funds.
CalSTRS selects Pension Consulting Alliance as private equity consultant
The California State Teachers' Retirement Board, the governing body of the California State Teachers' Retirement System (CalSTRS) announced the selection of Pension Consulting Alliance (PCA) as the private equity consultant to its Investment Committee for the next five years. PCA will provide independent assessments of the private equity portfolio's performance. The CalSTRS Private Equity portfolio was valued at $22 billion or 14.4% of the overall investment portfolio, as of March 31, 2012.
The consultants will also prepare the semi-annual performance reports and review the annual business plans of the scheme, which has a total portfolio valued at $153 billion as of the same period.
Gartmore Group Pension Scheme agrees on buy-in with PIC
The Gartmore Pension Scheme has entered into a £160m insurance buy-in agreement with Pension Insurance Corporation (PIC).
The transaction covers the benefits for all 600 members of the scheme. According to advisers LCP this is the third largest buy-in or buy-out with a solvent employer where all members are insured since 2008.
Charlie Finch, partner at LCP said: "We are delighted to help [Gartmore] meet its objectives and benefit from the recent improvements in buy-in pricing. With the pent-up demand for de-risking and current favourable buy-in pricing I expect the record levels of transactions in 2011 to continue into 2012."
First Published 10.05.2012
azeevalkink@wilmington.co.uk
