Noticeboard PEOPLE MOVES


The City of Westminster Pension Fund has welcomed Christopher Smith as its vice chair. A 20-year veteran of the council, Smith has spent seven years sitting on the scheme’s board. Suzanne Rose is the new head of Aviva’s master trust. She steps up from leading the insurer’s workplace savings offering after Martin Palmer decided to take semi-retirement. Rachel Beagles is now a non-executive director of workplace pension provider Cushon. She also leads the audit and risk committee. The former chair of the Asso- ciation of Investment Companies brings two decades of experience to the firm. 2020 Trustees has welcomed Nicola Paul as trustee director. An actuary by trade, she has spent 30 years working with trus- tees and corporates while at firms such as XPS, PwC and Aon.


NOTICEBOARD


Workplace pension scheme Nest has handed a private equity mandate to HarbourVest. This comes after Schroders Capital was selected for a similar role in May. The initial strategy is to invest at least £1.5bn in the asset class by 2025, ahead of ultimately 5% of Nest’s assets – which currently stand at £24bn – being held in private companies. HarbourVest, which manages almost $100bn (£121bn) of assets, will focus on growth and middle market deals with an eye on making the acquired businesses more sustainable. Nest has also bought a stake in the world’s largest operational offshore wind farm. The master trust and pension scheme- backed GLIL Infrastructure each invested £200m in the Ørsted-operated Hornsea One Wind Farm. Together they now hold 12.5% of the 1.2 GW asset. Situated off the Yorkshire coast, the farm’s 174 turbines can power more than 1 mil-


8 | portfolio institutional | September 2022 | issue 116


Capital Cranfield has strengthened its team of professional trustees by recruit- ing Ryan Ellett, who has First Actuarial and KPMG on his CV. He joins the firm’s professional corporate sole trustee team. The Pensions Regulator has welcomed Alison Hatcher to its board as a non-exec- utive director. She replaced Sarah Smart who has been promoted to chair. Hatcher is


chief executive of HSBC


Retirement Services, which supports the bank’s master trust. She was formerly global head of pensions, a founder of Women in Pensions, is part of the PLSA’s diversity advisory board and a member of the investment sub-committee for War- wick University. The Pensions Management Institute (PMI) has appointed Sara Cook as its president. First


Actuarial’s Robert Wakefield becomes her vice president. Cook, a principal at Barnett Waddingham, was offered the role after Lesley Alexan-


lion homes. The deal is part of Nest’s strategy to give its members exposure to cleaner energy. Railpen, which manages £37bn for work- ers on Britain’s railways, has bought a property in Camden, London. The 23,000-square foot asset offers office space over four floors with a roof terrace. This is Railpen’s second office property in Camden following a deal two years ago. This latest acquisition is part of a strategy to create clusters in locations with poten- tial for rental growth. Defined benefit scheme insurer Pension Insurance Corporation (PIC) has commit- ted £200m of equity to build 10 retire- ment villages across the UK. This is the insurer’s first move into assets specifically built for retirees and is designed to meet demand from an aging population. PIC has formed a partnership with Octopus Real Estate to provide homes for 2,000 people, which will i nclude restaurants, gyms, pools, spas and other communal spaces.


CALENDAR


Topics for confirmed upcoming portfolio institutional roundtables: September


– Responsible investing October


– Defined contribution


November – Infrastructure


December – Biodiversity


der’s term ended. Cook also chairs the PMI’s advisory council, which Eve Keith, pensions manager at Tesco, has joined. Pension Insurance Corporation has con- firmed David Weymouth as group chair. He brings more than 45 years’ of financial services experience to the role.


The joint venture – Senior Living Invest- ment Partners – aims to generate around £1bn of gross development value. PIC has also put a scheme sponsored by IT specialist EDS on the path to a full buy- out after agreeing a £1.1bn buy-in. The deal covers 3,000 retirees and 2,300 deferred members of the EDS 1994 Pen- sion Scheme.


Elsewhere, almost 600 current and for- mer workers at packaging and paper maker Mondi Aberdeen are also benefit- ing from PIC’s support following a £52m deal.


The trustee of the Medway Packaging Pension Scheme secured the pensions of 425 retirees and 150 deferred members in a full scheme buy-in.


Around 800 workers at Premier Inn and restaurants such as Brewers Fayre and Beefeater have had their retirement benefits guaranteed following a £680m agreement. The bulk annuity deal for the Whitbread Group Pension Fund was funded by Stand- ard Life.


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