Annual Report demonstrates the power of pooling

Brunel Pension Partnership has published its 2019-20 Annual Report and Accounts, which demonstrates the benefits of pooling with annual savings of more than £34 million and increased opportunities for stewardship, diversification and climate analysis.

Brunel has now transitioned almost £20 billion of assets from its ten clients, and remains on track to complete most of the remaining transitions in 2021, despite the global pandemic and its resulting lockdowns.

The report also highlights the practical benefits of pooling Local Government Pension Schemes, above all the aggregate power of a larger partnership to deliver net cost savings, exposure to a wide range of asset classes, and significant reductions in climate-related risk exposure. Fundamentally, it shows the greater capacity of a broad partnership to deliver the outcomes sought by clients.

By reducing investment costs, including using its greater scale to negotiate better fees from fund managers, considerable tax and other savings have been made over the course of the year for Brunel’s client funds. For example, the Property Fund has saved several million pounds already.

The Annual Report also reflects on Brunel’s sector leadership on responsible investment, such as through its reporting on emissions figures for its holdings, its engagement in policy advocacy and shareholder actions, and its integration of Brunel’s Climate Change Policy into portfolio design and monitoring.

The report also records a number of recent fund launches across different asset classes and, of course, sets out the figures for the financial reporting period.

Unusual times

Finally, since the report covers an exceptional period in global, corporate and investing history, it also shows how the business has laid particular emphasis on issues around staff mental health and business continuity.

“Throughout a historic financial year we, continued to deliver value for our clients through pooling and through following through on our responsible investment pledges,” said Laura Chappell, CEO at Brunel Pension Partnership. “LGPS pooling has enabled not just immense cost savings, but also broader benefits that were not available pre-pooling, including opportunities for stewardship, diversification and enhanced climate risk analysis. Brunel’s experience in managing and voting on climate-related risks, combined with our strong financial standing, puts us in a unique position to drive climate policy.”

From our inception as an LGPS pool, Brunel has committed to ‘investing for a planet worth living in’ and today’s report also highlights our target to improve the carbon intensity of portfolios by 7% each year until 2022, and to create our own RI benchmarks. Through the Brunel Secured Income Fund, the partnership is investing in projects like the giant low carbon greenhouses in East Anglia set to increase domestic production of tomatoes by 10%, and heated entirely from a recycled water plant. More broadly, at least 35% of Brunel’s Cycle 1 private market investments were in renewable energy.

Please follow the link to view Brunel’s full Annual Report & Accounts 2019-20.

For any questions please contact Alex Monro, Head of Communications
alex.monro@brunelpp.org | 07483-026453