Agenda and minutes

Pensions Panel - Tuesday 1st December 2015 9:30am

Venue: Bremen Room - County Buildings. View directions

Contact: Michael Bradbury

Items
No.	Item
32.	Declarations of Interest Minutes: There were no declarations of interest on this occasion.
33.	Minutes of meeting held on 8 September 2015 PDF 114 KB Minutes: RESOLVED – That the minutes of Meeting of the Pensions Panel held on 8 September 2015 be confirmed and signed by the Chairman.
34.	Pension Fund Performance and Portfolio of Investments as at 30 September 2015 PDF 200 KB Report of the Director of Finance and Resources Additional documents: Item 4 Portfolio of Investments SEP , item 34. PDF 2 MB Minutes: The Director of Finance and Resources submitted a summary of the performance of the Pension Fund together with a portfolio of the Fund’s investments as at 30 September 2015. The Panel were informed that Global equity markets suffered bouts of extreme volatility over the third quarter of 2015. All major indices finished in negative territory with the MSCI World falling 7.72%. Markets feared that the world’s second-largest economy, China, could be headed for major slow-down in growth. In August the surprise decision to devalue the yuan by Chinese authorities led many to speculate the situation was worse than feared and caused a further stock market sell-off dubbed ‘Black Monday’. From June 12 to August 24, the Shanghai Composite index shed 38% of its value. In the UK, as in all markets, equities had a disappointing time. The UK Consumer Price Index continued to hover around zero and the Bank of England followed the Federal Reserve in holding interest rates at their historical lows. Solid trade data and positive historical GDP revisions continued to suggest that the UK was in a strong position particularly versus its European peers. Europe continued to show a modest recovery helped by the urgency around the Greek debt crisis being resolved. The Panel noted that, given equity market performance over the quarter, it was no surprise that the Fund had generated a negative return of -3.7% (an underperformance of -0.2% against the benchmark), with the market value of the Fund standing at £3.6 billion at 30 September 2015. However, the Fund was still successfully outperforming the return of its benchmark over the financial year to date with an excess return of 0.2%. The Fund’s Global Equity portfolio (-5.8%) had the biggest impact on the Fund’s performance this quarter whilst Property was the best performing asset class, with a return of +2.8% over the quarter and a return of +15.4%, for the financial year to date. Over the longer term, the Fund continued to outperform its benchmark return in the 1, 3 and 5 year time periods, with positive excess returns of 0.9% and 0.8% p.a. in the 3 and 5 year periods respectively. RESOLVED – That the Pension Fund performance and portfolio of investments for the quarter ended 30 September 2015 be noted.
35.	Dates of Future Meetings 9 March 2016 (1.30pm) To be confirmed: 7 June 2016 19 July 2016 8 September 2016 6 December 2016 7 March 2017 All meetings are scheduled to start at 9.30am at County Buildings, Stafford Minutes: 9 March 2016 (1.30pm) To be confirmed: 7 June 2016 19 July 2016 (Managers’ Day) 8 September 2016 6 December 2016 7 March 2017 All meetings are scheduled to start at 9.30am at County Buildings, Stafford.
36.	Exclusion of the Public The Chairman to move:- ‘That the public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business which involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in the paragraphs of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended) indicated below’. Minutes: RESOLVED -, That the public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business which involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in the paragraph of Part One of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended) indicated below. The Panel then proceeded to consider reports on the following issues:
37.	Exempt Minutes of the Meeting held on 8 September 2015 View the reasons why item 37. is restricted (Exemption paragraph 3) Minutes: (Exemption paragraph 3)
38.	Pooling of LGPS Investments (Exemption paragraph 3) Oral update by the Director of Finance and Resources Minutes: (Exemption paragraph 3)
39.	Strategic Benchmark Review and Monitoring (Exemption Paragraph 3) Minutes: (Exemption paragraph 3)
39a	Economic and Market Update View the reasons why item 39a is restricted Report and Presentation by Hymans Robertson
39b	Review of Position as at 31 October 2015 View the reasons why item 39b is restricted Report of the Director of Finance and Resources
40.	Pension Fund Performance and Manager Monitoring for the quarter ended 30 September 2015 View the reasons why item 40. is restricted (Exemption paragraph 3) (Report of Portfolio Evaluation for the quarter ended 30 September 2015 enclosed for information) Minutes: (Exemption paragraph 3)
41.	Corporate Governance and Socially Responsible Investment Report Quarter 3 2015 View the reasons why item 41. is restricted (Exemption paragraph 3) Report of the Director of Finance and Resources Minutes: (Exemption paragraph 3)
42.	Private Equity Training and Strategy Implementation (Exemption paragraph 3) Minutes: (Exemption paragraph 3)
42a	Investing in Private Equity Training, report and presentation by HarbourVest Partners
42b	Review of position at 30 September 2015 and approval of strategy 2016-2019 (Phase IV) View the reasons why item 42b is restricted Reports of the Director of Finance and Resources and HarbourVest Partners
43.	Property Strategy Update View the reasons why item 43. is restricted (Exemption paragraph 3) Report of Colliers Capital Minutes: (Exemption paragraph 3)