Anthony Parnell | Interview
current strategies, whether it is property, hedge funds, private equity, etc… It is more of a challenge to pool invest- ments on the private market side because of the illiquidity, but all eight partner funds are committed to doing some pooling on the illiquid side.
What is your policy on ESG and responsi- ble investing? We have a draft responsible investment policy which we are developing. We should have a final responsible investing policy for Wales Pension Partnership in the autumn.
Are you briefing your manag- ers to engage with their portfo- lio companies to improve their behaviour or policies? Yes. When Russell Investments appoints managers on our behalf, part of the appointment process is reviewing their ESG criteria. So a big part of that is looking at responsible invest- ment issues.
Wales Pension Partnership
Host authority: Carmarthenshire County Council
Member fund assets: £16bn
Member funds: Carmarthenshire, Swansea, Cardiff, Flintshire, Gwynedd, Powys, Rhondda Cynon Taf, Torfaen
Are you working in collaboration with any of the other seven pools on investing? I work for Carmarthenshire County Coun-
This is part of the whole collaboration exer- cise on reporting back to the local govern- ment minister regularly on progress.
We are conscious that ESG policies and
procedures should be embedded in the pieces of work we are doing with Russell Investments and Link.
We are conscious that ESG policies and procedures should be embedded in the pieces of work we are doing with Russell Investments and Link.
So responsible investment is important to you?
It is essential. We are committing to embedding it into our work.
You have global equity sub-funds, so does your responsible investing policy allow for the pool to own oil and gas companies? The global equity managers decide to invest in companies as they see fit. We are not cur- rently excluding anything. We have been receiving regular reports on their investments, so we can analyse what companies our managers have invested in.
cil, which is the host authority for Wales Pension Partnership, and we sit around a table regularly with the other seven pools to discuss various ideas and how we are all progressing. There is a sub-group on responsible investing; there is also a sub- group on infrastructure, so we have regular discussions with the other pools. We are not working in silos.
What has the minister said about the pro- gress at Wales Pension Partnership? From recent communications we have had, he is comfortable with the progress that we are making. Without putting us on a pedes- tal, over the past 18 months we have done a lot of work and we are keeping the momen- tum going.
What news-flow can we expect to see from Wales Pension Partnership in the next 12 months? We are currently developing a website as well as the other work we are doing. That should be up and running by the end of this calendar year. It will carry a lot of infor- mation on the pool, including governance, our investments and policies. So watch this space.
There is a sub-group on responsible
investing; there is also a sub-group on infrastructure, so we have regular discussions with the other pools. We are not working in silos.
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