Interview – London CIV


INTERVIEW – JASON FLETCHER


“Equities will probably do a fairly good job of matching inflation over time. Bonds,


sadly, will not.” London CIV’s chief investment officer speaks to Mona Dohle about pooling the assets of 32 local government pension schemes, anticipating market trends and why funds are a bit like strawberries.


You joined London CIV during a pandemic. How have those 18 months been? A big step forward for us came in June when we started going back to the office in dribs and drabs. We have since moved to a hybrid working arrangement. But the real turning point was in September when we held a conference with our part- ner funds. It was the first time many of us met all our clients face-to-face. We managed that period of working from home reasonably well and were surprised


12 | portfolio institutional | March 2022 | issue 111


by how productive we were. During that time, we launched six funds, four of which were private markets. We also made progress on our Paris-aligned ESG implementation. Sustainable investment is a critical part of our funds. ESG cuts through everything we do. We have three specialists who work closely with our investment team to build ESG into our strategies. The key element here is our net-zero target for 2040, which is ambitious. Some clients say it’s too ambi-


tious, while some think it’s not ambitious enough, but it works for us as a group. Over the past three months, we have seen a 2% shift to Paris-aligned products by our clients. A billion pounds in a quarter is quite an achievement. In terms of pool- ing, the critical turning point came in September when many of us first met our clients. Pooling happened gradually dur- ing lockdown, but it has accelerated since we were able to meet our clients in the flesh and talk through their strategies.


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