Brunel Pension Partnership announces appointment of LGIM

Brunel Pension Partnership has announced its first fund manager appointment following a successful tender process on its passive equity portfolio.

Following rigorous and diligent research and in depth evaluation by the Brunel team, LGIM (Legal & General Investment Management Ltd) has been named as Brunel’s first fund manager.

“We are delighted by the response and the excellent quality of the tenders received,” says Mark Mansley, Chief Investment Officer at Brunel Pension Partnership. “LGIM’s approach to enhancing performance and their commitment to corporate governance and stewardship, along with their client-focused ethos, has contributed to making them our preferred choice. We are confident that LGIM’s approach will be fully in line with our own low-cost, high quality agenda.”

James Sparshott, Head of Local Authorities at LGIM, says: “We are delighted to be partnering with Brunel on their index-tracking equity portfolio. Our understanding of the specific challenges facing the local authority sector means we are able to use our scale and expertise to offer suitable low-cost investment solutions that meet our clients’ needs.

“We are committed to supporting the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) with asset pooling which is aimed at delivering the best outcome at retirement for current and future pensioners. We look forward to working with Brunel and helping it to deliver on its long-term investment objectives.’’

Further decisions are still to be made regarding passive smart beta equities and passive gilt portfolios. The appointments regarding these will be announced in due course.

The mandate is expected to be worth over £4bn. With more than 600,000 members and assets of £29bn awaiting allocation, this is only the first fund manager appointment from Brunel Pension Partnership.