Agenda item

A report of the Director of Finance was presented to inform Members of the Teesside Pension Fund Committee how the Investment Advisors' recommendations were being implemented.

A detailed report on the transactions undertaken to demonstrate the implementation of the Investment Advice recommendations and the Fund's valuation was included, as well as a report on the treasury management of the Fund's cash balances and the latest Forward Investment Programme.

The Fund continued to favour growth assets over protection assets and currently had no investments in Bonds.   Whilst it was considered that Bond yields would rise in the long run, at present yields did not meet the actuarial requirements for the Fund and should continue to be avoided at these levels unless held as a short term alternative to cash.

The cash levels at the end of December 2020 were 8.26%.  The Fund would continue to use cash to move away from its overweight position in equities and invest further in Alternatives.

Investment in direct property would continue on an opportunistic basis where the property had good covenant, yield and lease terms. No property transactions were undertaken in this quarter.

During the quarter, £45.3 million was invested in Alternatives. The Fund was considerably underweight its customised benchmark and, providing suitable investment opportunities were available, would look to increase its allocation to this asset class up to the customised benchmark level.

Appendix A to the submitted report detailed transactions for the period 1 October 2020 to 31 December 2020. There were net purchases of £45.4m million in the period, this compared to net purchases of £33.2 million in the previous reporting period.

As at 31 December 2020, the Fund had £361.5 million invested with approved counterparties. This was a decrease of £68.3 million over the last quarter. Appendix B to the submitted report showed the maturity profile of cash invested as well as the average rate of interest obtained on the investments for each time period.

The total value of all investments as at 31 December 2020, including cash, was £4,385 million, compared with the last reported valuation as at 30 June 2020, of £4,084 million.

A summary analysis of the valuation showed the Fund's percentage weightings in the various asset classes as at 31 December 2020 compared with the Fund's customised benchmark.

The Forward Investment Programme provided commentary on activity in the current quarter as well as looking ahead to the next three to five years. Details of the current commitments in equities, bonds and cash, property and alternatives were included in paragraph 8 of the submitted report.

The Fund was currently above its target asset allocation of 50% equities.  As at the end of December 2020 the Fund’s equity weighting was 77.04%.  The overweight position should be reduced over time through further investment in Alternative assets, however, this was a slow process.  As long as suitable alternative investments were available the Fund would look to a reduction in the overweight position of 5% per year.

ORDERED that the report was received and noted.