Investor Day: Partnership gathers to hear about Brunel’s Sustainable Equities portfolio, private equity allocations, progress on natural capital & more

Pension Officers, Pension Committee members and Pension Board members from across Brunel’s ten LGPS clients gathered at the headquarters of Wiltshire Pension Fund this week to hear from some of our appointed managers, as well as from our CEO, CIO and incoming Chair.

Speakers at County Hall, Trowbridge included Joana Rocha, Jennifer Signori and Ralph Eissler from Neuberger Berman (NB), a manager on Brunel’s private equity portfolios. Among topics they covered were the outlook for the asset class, how they measure impact, the effect of interest rate hikes, and the cost benefits of Brunel-NB co-investments.

On the listed markets side, David Jenkins, Portfolio Manager, interviewed Ben Yeoh of RBC and Abbie Llewellyn-Davies of Jupiter Asset Management, about their approaches to their respective mandates on Brunel’s Sustainable Equities Portfolio – and debated their very different investment takes on Nvidia.

“There were so many productive conversations across both the formal and the informal parts of the day,” said Laura Chappell, CEO at Brunel. “I see these conversations as reflecting our coordinated progress to date as a partnership – and as signalling how much more there is to come.”

Natural Capital & Stewardship

One major indication of that future trajectory came in a presentation by Faith Ward and Chris van der Merwe, from Brunel’s RI team, entitled: “Natural Capital Investing and managing natural capital risks ”. Biodiversity and Nature is a priority RI theme at Brunel, but there are many new aspects of this investment theme that are at a much earlier stage of development than climate change, both within Brunel and on the wider market (where the implementation of TNFD reporting is still at an early stage).

In 2023, Brunel ran a co-pilot with S&P Sustainable (see 2023 Review for more). At this week’s event, Faith and Chris introduced the terminology, showcased Brunel’s investments in natural capital (as part of our Infrastructure cycle 3 portfolio), and looked ahead to the prospect of a dedicated natural capital portfolio.

A further RI session examined stewardship, as Brunel’s Vaishnavi Ravishankar and Bruce Duguid, Head of Stewardship at EOS Federated Hermes, presented on key RI themes at Brunel, including tax, human rights & social issues, and cyber/AI, giving examples of engagement, and exploring the nuances and trade-offs involved in maximising long-term impact.

The day was opened by Laura Chappell and also featured a presentation on markets and portfolios by David Vickers, Chief Investment Officer, and an interview with Sally Bridgeland, who takes over as only the second Chair in Brunel’s history on 1 October.

Brunel is grateful to all who attended and especially grateful to Wiltshire Council and Wiltshire Pension Fund for hosting Investor Day 2024 at County Hall in Trowbridge.