ACCESS LGPS Pool appoints Pension & Investment Research Consultants Ltd (PIRC) as ESG & RI advisor

ACCESS has appointed Pension & Investment Research Consultants Ltd (PIRC) as its external Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) & Responsible Investment (RI) advisor following a National Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) Framework Procurement, to implement the pools Phase II Responsible Investment Guidelines. PIRC have been appointed to:

  • advise upon, and monitoring of, developments within ESG / RI reporting requirements and arrangements;
  • review the ACCESS Pool Voting Guidelines and make recommendations to enhance the voting impact in line with the RI Guidelines;
  • review the ACCESS Pool RI Guidelines and ensure they are developed in line with best practice;
  • assist with stewardship gap analysis and support any future ACCESS Pool Stewardship Code submission; and
  • understand the current and future ESG / RI related challenges faced by, and opportunities open to, institutional asset owners with particular reference to reporting requirements.

PIRC will use the ACCESS RI guidelines as the starting point to deliver a universal reporting framework. This will incorporate the expectations ACCESS places on asset managers into the framework. These expectations include outlining responsible investment principles, main risks, how ESG is incorporated into investment decisions, stewardship, voting and engagement activities and outcomes, and reporting against TCFD.  

The rapid evolution of ESG issues means there is a large volume of information to process. PIRC’s sole focus on ESG issues and its knowledge sharing processes will help ensure the Pool stays up to date with developments and best practice.

Cllr Mark Kemp-Gee, Chairman of the ACCESS Joint Committee, said, “We are delighted to be able to confirm the appointment of PIRC to the Pool as our ESG & Responsible Investment advisor. We will be benefiting from PIRC’s experience which will ensure that our new initiatives and best practices are up to the mark. It is another major step in ACCESS’ progress as we expand our ESG and Responsible Investment oversight for our stakeholders’ investments.” 

Alan MacDougall, Managing Director of PIRC, said: “We are extremely pleased to have been selected by ACCESS to support them meet their stewardship needs and ambitions. ACCESS has a clear set of priorities focused on delivering value and the views of its 11 LGPS Administering Authorities. We are therefore looking forward to using our ESG and LGPS expertise to work with ACCESS and the 11 Authorities to develop and strengthen the pool’s ESG and responsible investment policies and practices in line with their distinct stewardship approach and requirements.” 

Media enquiries:

ACCESS

Kate Cunningham, MHP Group

Kate.cunningham@mhpgroup.com

PIRC

Holly Rhodes, PIRC

holly.rhodes@pirc.co.uk

Notes for Editors

About the ACCESS Pool

The ACCESS (A Collaboration of Central, Eastern and Southern Shires) is made of 11 LGPS Administering Authorities: Cambridgeshire County Council; East Sussex County Council; Essex County Council; Hampshire County Council; Hertfordshire County Council; Isle of Wight Council; Kent County Council; Norfolk County Council; West Northamptonshire Council; Suffolk County Council; and West Sussex County Council.

ACCESS Authorities are committed to working together and have each signed an Inter Authority Agreement, setting out how they will work together in response to the Governments pooling agenda across the LGPS, and to optimise benefits and efficiencies on behalf of their individual and collective stakeholders.

As at 30 September 2023, ACCESS’ pooled assets totalled £35bn.

About Pension & Investment Research Consultants

Pensions & Investment Research Consultants Ltd (PIRC) is Europe’s largest independent corporate governance and shareholder advisory consultancy with over 30 years’ experience in providing stewardship and proxy research services to institutional investors on environmental, social and governance issues. 

PIRC provides services to clients who are stewards of over a trillion pounds of beneficiary capital. Our services protect and enhance long-term returns by promoting the highest corporate standards. Our dedicated and specialist team work closely with clients to understand their responsible investment principles and deliver their responsible investment priorities.

ACCESS LGPS Pool appoints CBRE Investment Management to UK and Global Property mandates

6th November 2023: ACCESS has appointed CBRE Investment Management (“CBRE IM”) to manage both a UK Core real estate and a Global real estate mandates.

As a specialist manager, CBRE IM will work in partnership with ACCESS to help leverage the cost-effective scale of pooling, establishing access to both UK and Global real estate investment opportunities. The appointment marks the first step in the launch of a pooled real estate investment proposition for ACCESS’ partner funds.

It is anticipated that the mandate size for the UK Core real estate mandate will be up to c. £1.25 billion, and c. £550 million for the Global real estate mandate, with potential to grow thereafter in line with the Authorities’ strategic asset allocations.

Real estate is the first illiquid asset class to be considered for pooling within private markets for ACCESS.

Cllr Mark Kemp-Gee, Chairman of the ACCESS Joint Committee, said, “We are very pleased to confirm CBRE Investment Management as the partner to manage these significant property mandates. They bring extensive expertise and deep knowledge of the market. It is another major step in ACCESS’ progress as we build our offering and leverage our own scale on behalf of our Authorities.”

Hannah Marshall, CIO – UK Direct Real Estate at CBRE Investment Management, said: “We are delighted to have been chosen by ACCESS to partner with them to support their long-term goals for direct and indirect real estate strategies. Our extensive local and global experience, as well as our ability to offer cohesive oversight of the direct and indirect processes, access to a large investment pipeline and a track record of delivering strong returns, met with their investment objectives. We look forward to this collaboration with ACCESS and building a portfolio that aims to generate sustainable income and provide long-term value to its members.“

knowledge of the market. It is another major step in ACCESS’ progress as we build our offering and leverage our own scale to invest our own scale for our stakeholders’ investments.”

Media enquiries:

ACCESS

Charlotte Merlin-Jones, MHP Group

c.merlin-jones@mhpgroup.com

CBRE

Helen Stott, CBRE Investment Management

helen.stott@cbreim.com / +44 7824 864 875

Notes for Editors

About the ACCESS Pool

The ACCESS (A Collaboration of Central, Eastern and Southern Shires) is made of 11 LGPS Administering Authorities: Cambridgeshire County Council; East Sussex County Council; Essex County Council; Hampshire County Council; Hertfordshire County Council; Isle of Wight Council; Kent County Council; Norfolk County Council; West Northamptonshire Council; Suffolk County Council; and West Sussex County Council.

ACCESS Authorities are committed to working together and have each signed an Inter Authority Agreement, setting out how they will work together in response to the Governments pooling agenda across the LGPS, and to optimise benefits and efficiencies on behalf of their individual and collective stakeholders.

As at 30 September 2023, ACCESS’ pooled assets totalled £35bn.

About CBRE Investment Management

CBRE Investment Management is a leading global real assets investment management firm with $147.6 billion in assets under management* as of June 30, 2023, operating in more than 30 offices and 20 countries around the world. Through its investor-operator culture, the firm seeks to deliver sustainable investment solutions across real assets categories, geographies, risk profiles and execution formats so that its clients, people and communities thrive.

CBRE Investment Management is an independently operated affiliate of CBRE Group, Inc. (NYSE:CBRE), the world’s largest commercial real estate services and investment firm (based on 2022 revenue). CBRE has approximately 115,000 employees (excluding Turner & Townsend employees) serving clients in more than 100 countries. CBRE Investment Management harnesses CBRE’s data and market insights, investment sourcing and other resources for the benefit of its clients. For more information, please visit www.cbreim.com.

*Assets under management (AUM) refers to the fair market value of real assets-related investments with respect to which CBRE Investment Management provides, on a global basis, oversight, investment management services and other advice and which generally consist of investments in real assets; equity in funds and joint ventures; securities portfolios; operating companies and real assets-related loans. This AUM is intended principally to reflect the extent of CBRE Investment Management’s presence in the global real assets market, and its calculation of AUM may differ from the calculations of other asset managers and from its calculation of regulatory assets under management for purposes of certain regulatory filings.

The ACCESS Pool is seeking a UK Core direct real estate investment manager and a Global real estate (fund of funds) allocator

The ACCESS Pool, which consists of assets totalling c.£35bn on behalf of participating Pension Funds, is seeking a UK Core direct real estate investment manager and a Global real estate (fund of funds) allocator.

It is anticipated that the initial mandate size for the UK Core mandate will be between c. £0.75 billion and c. £1.25 billion, and c.£400 million to c. £550 million for the Global mandate, with potential to grow thereafter in both cases. Further information including assumptions and caveats are contained in Invitation to Tender (ITT) documents.

The contract(s) will run for 30 years and is (are) subject to a five-yearly review cycle during this period. These will be procured through two separate tenders, both carried out as two-stage restricted procedures. Submissions for both tenders need to be received in English by 14:00 BST on 23 September 2022.

Full details of the requirement for both searches can be found in the Specification at Annex 1 of the ITT documentation by registering within Hampshire County Council’s instance of the In-Tend e-procurement platform.

As at the end of March 2022, ACCESS had pooled investments of £35.1 billion across a combination equity, fixed income, and diversified growth funds.

The two real estate searches are expected to result in material additional pooling of assets.

In January 2022, following a procurement via National LGPS frameworks, ACCESS announced the appointment of MJ Hudson as implementation adviser for the pooling of illiquid assets including private equity, private debt, infrastructure, and real estate. As implementation advisor, MJ Hudson will provide support to the Pool in selecting individual investment opportunities and investment managers to build portfolios in a range of illiquid assets.

Real estate is the first illiquid asset class to be considered for pooling within private markets for ACCESS.

Notes for Editors

Media enquiries:

ACCESS

Kate Cunningham, MHP Michief

access@mhpc.com / 07712 536 361

ACCESS Progress Update

The ACCESS Progress Update gives an overview of our Pool and highlights key achievements over the last year.

River Cam, Cambridge

ACCESS LGPS Investment Pool launches four new sub-funds

ACCESS LGPS Investment Pool launches four new sub-funds to pool a further £3.2bn

The assets invested by the constituent schemes brings the total ACCESS Pool assets under management to £33.1bn.
Four new externally managed funds enhance the fixed income and UK equity solutions for the 11 Local Authorities.

17 March 2022 – Link Fund Solutions Limited (LFS), on behalf of the ACCESS, has launched four new sub-funds, adding £3.2bn to the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) pool.

The transfer of assets to the four externally managed sub-funds brings the total pooled assets under management within ACCESS to £33.1bn, with £22.2bn managed actively within the LFS Authorised Contractual Scheme (ACS) and a further £10.9bn in passive funds.

The sub-funds, launched in July, October, December 2021 and February 2022, are the LF ACCESS UK Select Fund managed by BlackRock, the LF ACCESS Alpha Opportunities Fund managed by M&G, the LF ACCESS Sterling Investment Grade Credit Fund managed by Fidelity and the LF Global Equity Fund – Macquarie, managed by Macquarie.

ACCESS is a collaboration of 11 LGPS schemes which enables the investments on behalf of more than one million members and 3,400 public sector employers. ACCESS now provides each Local Authority with the opportunity to join any of 26 actively managed sub-fund strategies via the ACS platform operated by LFS.

Commenting on the launch, Cllr Kemp-Gee, Chairman of the ACCESS Joint Committee, said, “The addition of these sub-funds enriches the existing range of mandates available to Local Authorities, demonstrating the strong relationship ACCESS has with Link Fund Solutions (LFS) and our commitment to providing valuable options to Councils as they strive to deliver their members’ needs.”

Karl Midl, Manager Director of Link Fund Solutions said: “Having worked closely with the ACCESS Joint Committee we are extremely pleased to have appointed these fund managers to further expand the range of investment mandates available to ACCESS Councils, to deliver strong investment performance, material cost savings and further strengthen our successful track record since the launch of the pool”.

-ENDS-

Notes for Editors

Media enquiries:

ACCESS

Kate Cunningham, MHP Michief

access@mhpc.com / 07712 536 361

Link Group

UK & Europe:

David Sells (DSells@teamspirit.uk.com, 07464 985096)

Sandy Downs (sdowns@teamspirit.uk.com, 07384 907528)

Olivia Nelson (onelson@teamspirit.uk.com, 07392 106925)

Link@teamspirit.uk.com

About the ACCESS Pool

The ACCESS (A Collaboration of Central, Eastern and Southern Shires) is made of 11 LGPS Administering Authorities: Cambridgeshire County Council; East Sussex County Council; Essex County Council; Hampshire County Council; Hertfordshire County Council; Isle of Wight Council; Kent County Council; Norfolk County Council; West Northamptonshire Council; Suffolk County Council; and West Sussex County Council.

The ACCESS Administering Authorities are committed to working together and have each signed an Inter Authority Agreement, setting out how they will work together in response to the Governments pooling agenda across the LGPS, and to optimise benefits and efficiencies on behalf of their individual and collective stakeholders.

ACCESS appointed Link Fund Solutions Limited to provide Operator services in early 2018.

Link Fund Solutions Limited is responsible for establishing and operating the Authorised Contractual Scheme (ACS) along with creating the investment sub-funds and appointing the investment managers to those sub-funds.

About Link Group (ASX: LNK)

A global, digitally enabled business connecting millions of people with their assets – responsibly, securely and safely.

From equities, pension and superannuation to investments, property and other financial assets, we partner with a diversified portfolio of global clients to provide robust, efficient and scalable services, purpose-built solutions and modern technology platforms that deliver world class outcomes and experiences.

We help manage regulatory complexity, improve data management and connect people with their assets, through exceptional user experiences that leverages the expertise of our people combined with technology, digital connectivity and data insights.

For more information, please visit: www.linkgroup.com

ACCESS Joint
Committee agrees
observer proposals

Each ACCESS Authority’s Local Pension Board will be invited to send observers, on a rotational basis, to Joint Committee meetings.

At its meeting on Monday 7 March 2022, the ACCESS Joint Committee (JC) agreed proposals enabling each ACCESS Authority’s Local Pension Board (LPB) to send two observers, on a rotational basis, to Joint Committee meetings. In practice, observers from three ACCESS Authority LPBs at a time will attend JC meetings in person, allowing each LPB to be represented at least once a year.

The observers can be drawn from scheme member representatives, employer representatives or independent LPB members. Whilst it will be for each LPB to agree the two observers, it is desirable that at least one of the observers from each LPB is a scheme member representative. This arrangement will be reviewed after its first full year.

Commenting, Cllr Kemp-Gee, Chairman of the ACCESS Joint Committee, said, “I warmly welcome the Joint Committee’s decision enabling observers from Local Pension Boards to observe our meetings, which will further enhance our Pool’s transparency”

Cllr Kemp-Gee, Chairman of the ACCESS Joint Committee

Notes for Editors

Media enquiries:

ACCESS

Kate Cunningham, MHP Michief

access@mhpc.com / 07712 536 361

About the ACCESS Pool

The ACCESS (A Collaboration of Central, Eastern and Southern Shires) is made of 11 LGPS Administering Authorities: Cambridgeshire County Council; East Sussex County Council; Essex County Council; Hampshire County Council; Hertfordshire County Council; Isle of Wight Council; Kent County Council; Norfolk County Council; West Northamptonshire Council; Suffolk County Council; and West Sussex County Council.

ACCESS Authorities are committed to working together and have each signed an Inter Authority Agreement, setting out how they will work together in response to the Governments pooling agenda across the LGPS, and to optimise benefits and efficiencies on behalf of their individual and collective stakeholders.

The ACCESS Joint Committee currently consists of 11 Councillors nominated by each of the ACCESS Authorities

ACCESS Joint Committee statement on Russian invasion of Ukraine

The ACCESS Joint Committee met on Monday 7 March 2022.

At that meeting the 11 Local Authorities that make up the ACCESS Pool unanimously condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine in the strongest possible terms.

The extent of direct Russian-based investment within the ACCESS Pool has only ever been on a very small scale, and as at 1 March 2022 accounted for just 0.05% of pooled assets.

Sanctions

Following the imposition of sanctions by the UK and other governments, the Russian equity market closed and Russian stocks have been excluded from major indices. As a result of these actions, the value of ACCESS Pool holdings in local Russian shares, ADRs and GDRs has been written down to zero. At this time, ACCESS has received assurances from our partners involved regarding the cessation of all new purchases of Russian securities until further notice.

Monitoring

On behalf of the Joint Committee, and with our partners and advisers, the ACCESS Support Unit will continue to monitor the situation. Furthermore, the ACCESS Authorities will continue to review and monitor their investments including approaches to exiting Russian-based investments when that is practicable.

The Committee‘s thoughts throughout this time remain with the courageous people of Ukraine.

Notes for Editors

Media enquiries:

ACCESS

Kate Cunningham, MHP Michief

access@mhpc.com / 07712 536 361

About the ACCESS Pool

The ACCESS (A Collaboration of Central, Eastern and Southern Shires) is made of 11 LGPS Administering Authorities: Cambridgeshire County Council; East Sussex County Council; Essex County Council; Hampshire County Council; Hertfordshire County Council; Isle of Wight Council; Kent County Council; Norfolk County Council; West Northamptonshire Council; Suffolk County Council; and West Sussex County Council.

ACCESS Authorities are committed to working together and have each signed an Inter Authority Agreement, setting out how they will work together in response to the Governments pooling agenda across the LGPS, and to optimise benefits and efficiencies on behalf of their individual and collective stakeholders.

The ACCESS Joint Committee currently consists of 11 Councillors nominated by each of the ACCESS Authorities

ACCESS LGPS Pool appoints MJ Hudson as implementation advisor for pooling of illiquid assets

13th January 2022 – The ACCESS Pool has this month appointed MJ Hudson, the specialist service provider to the asset management industry, as implementation advisor for the pooling of illiquid assets, including private equity, infrastructure, private debt and real estate.

As implementation advisor, MJ Hudson will provide support to the Pool in selecting individual investment opportunities and investment managers to build portfolios in a range of illiquid assets.

The ACCESS Joint Committee will use MJ Hudson’s analyses and recommendations to inform their future actions and to meet the requirements and ambitions of local Authorities within the Pool. The first illiquid vehicles are expected to be launched in 2022/23.

ACCESS is a collaboration of 11 LGPS Authorities which enables investments on behalf of more than one million members and 3,250 public sector employers.  These consist of almost £35bn of pooled pension assets1.

Commenting on the appointment Cllr Kemp-Gee, Chairman of the ACCESS Joint Committee, said, “This long-term partnership with MJ Hudson is part of an important next phase in our development, as we will be able to offer pooled illiquid investment opportunities to our 11 member local authorities. MJ Hudson’s experience of successfully working with the LGPS and extensive private markets expertise make them the ideal partners for this process.”

Odi Lahav, COO, at MJ Hudson said: “We are extremely pleased to have been selected by ACCESS to act as implementation adviser for the Pool’s illiquid strategies. We look forward to working with the ACCESS member Authorities to provide them with strategic and manager selection advice in private markets, as these asset classes continue to gain strategic importance in LGPS investment portfolios.”

 -ENDS-

As at 31 December 2021 the Authorised Contractual scheme (ACS) operated by Link Fund Solutions contained £23.0bn of active assets, and £11.9bn of passive assets were managed by UBS.

Notes for Editors

Media enquiries:

ACCESS

Calum MacDougall, ENGINE MHP

access@mhpc.com / 07712 536 361

MJ Hudson

Katherine Hazelden

katherine.hazelden@MJHudson.com/ +44 20 3463 3200

About the ACCESS Pool

The ACCESS (A Collaboration of Central, Eastern and Southern Shires) is made of 11 LGPS Administering Authorities: Cambridgeshire County Council; East Sussex County Council; Essex County Council; Hampshire County Council; Hertfordshire County Council; Isle of Wight Council; Kent County Council; Norfolk County Council; West Northamptonshire Council; Suffolk County Council; and West Sussex County Council.

ACCESS Authorities are committed to working together and have each signed an Inter Authority Agreement, setting out how they will work together in response to the Governments pooling agenda across the LGPS, and to optimise benefits and efficiencies on behalf of their individual and collective stakeholders.

The ACCESS Joint Committee currently consists of 11 Councillors nominated by each of the ACCESS Authorities.

About MJ Hudson

MJ Hudson, the specialist service provider to the asset management industry, provides legal and financial services, investment consultancy, outsourcing, analytics and complementary advice and support to fund managers, investors and their counterparties, together forming an end-to-end platform of services. From its offices in Europe and North America’s major asset management centres, MJ Hudson’s team of 240 professionals works across the industry, with a particular focus on alternative assets, including private equity, venture capital, hedge funds, real estate, infrastructure, energy, and private credit.

The firm was admitted to the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange on 12 December 2019 and trades under the MJH.L symbol.

Our Investment Advisory team provides independent investment consulting and advice, transition and trading solutions and trustee services to institutional investors, including corporate and local government pension schemes, endowments and charitable organisations.

With over £80bn of assets under advice and a high-calibre advisory team that offers substantial senior experience across the investment and pension fund industry, we are well placed to provide proactive assistance on all investment and governance matters.

Our clients benefit from the strength of our dedicated team, process philosophy and long-standing knowledge of the market, as well as our commitment to delivering comprehensive and accessible research.

ACCESS LGPS Pool appoints Minerva as ESG adviser

3rd March 2021 – The ACCESS Pool has appointed Minerva Analytics, Europe’s leading independent stewardship support service, to support the development of its responsible investment approach.

Minerva Analytics will be helping ACCESS with a comprehensive review and revision of the pool’s responsible investment guidelines to ensure they capture the very latest thinking on Environmental Social and Governance (ESG), Stewardship and Climate Change issues.

Ashridge Estate, Hertfordshire

Through workshops and a programme of in-depth research, Minerva’s expert team will establish a baseline on a wide range of ESG and responsible investment issues across the full range of asset classes for the pool. The ACCESS Joint Committee will use Minerva’s analysis and recommendations to inform their future actions and to meet the requirements and ambitions of Authorities within the pool.

ACCESS is a collaboration of 11 LGPS Authorities which enables investments on behalf of more than one million members and 3,250 public sector employers, consisting of over £31bn of pension assets1.

Cllr Kemp-Gee, Chairman of the ACCESS Joint Committee, said, “Our objective is to develop a best-in-class investment offer for our LGPS Authorities, and a significant part of that process is ensuring responsible investment practices are well informed and effectively deployed.

“This collaboration with Minerva will give us the tools and data to help fulfil long term responsibilities to the schemes and their members.

Commenting on the appointment, chief executive of Minerva, Sarah Wilson said: “We’re delighted to be appointed by ACCESS and are looking forward to working with the team on this important and timely project. Minerva continues to build on its 25-year track record with the LGPS community, supporting them through this period of immense regulatory and market change with innovative solutions.”

As at 31 December 2020 the Authorised Contractual scheme (ACS) operated by Link Fund Solutions contained £20.5bn of active assets, and £10.7bn of passive assets were managed by UBS.

Notes for Editors

Media enquiries:

ACCESS

Calum MacDougall, ENGINE MHP

access@mhpc.com / +44 (0)7712 536 361

Minerva

Eden Smith, Communications Manager

hello@minerva.info / +44 (0)1376 503500

About the ACCESS Pool

ACCESS (A Collaboration of Central, Eastern and Southern Shires) is made up of 11 LGPS Administering Authorities: Cambridgeshire County Council; East Sussex County Council; Essex County Council; Hampshire County Council; Hertfordshire County Council; Isle of Wight Council; Kent County Council; Norfolk County Council; Northamptonshire County Council; Suffolk County Council; and West Sussex County Council.

The ACCESS Administering Authorities are committed to working together and have each signed an Inter Authority Agreement, setting out how they will work together in response to the Governments pooling agenda across the LGPS, and to optimise benefits and efficiencies on behalf of their individual and collective stakeholders.

ACCESS appointed Link Fund Solutions Limited to provide Operator services in early 2018.

Link Fund Solutions Limited is responsible for establishing and operating the Authorised Contractual Scheme (ACS) along with creating the investment sub-funds and appointing the investment managers to those sub-funds.

About Minerva

Minerva, through its subsidiary The Manifest Voting Agency Ltd, has over 25 years’ experience of supporting asset owners and managers with innovative stewardship support solutions including proxy vote agency, custom voting policies, sustainable stock lending, SDG mapping and ESG data projects. Minerva continues to innovate and now, as part of the Solactive family, is at the forefront of ESG-centric stewardship for global investors.