Insight Exchange
Insight Exchange: Andrew Stone
Interviewee:
|
Andrew Stone |
LAPF Investments speaks with Andrew Stone to discuss some of the issues shaping the sector
Andrew is Assistant Director – Investment Strategy for South Yorkshire Pensions Authority (SYPA) and is responsible for overseeing SYPA’s £11 billion of assets. He joined SYPA in October 2024, following his second tenure with Legal & General Investment Management. He has also previously worked at Border to Coast, as well as in various investment consulting and actuarial roles.
How can a fund have a policy which is genuinely individual to them, but which can still be achieved through their pool, and how are the pools engaging with funds to help them deliver their RI policies (including examples of best practice)?
Investing in a responsible and sustainable manner is – and always has been – very important to SYPA. We tend to use the annual update of our own RI policies to highlight areas in which we’d like to see more movement from Border to Coast in future.
Of course, pooling brings with it an element of compromise – but Border to Coast’s RI policies are written as a result of true collaboration across all of the pool’s partner funds (currently 11 and hopefully increasing to 18 in the very near future).
This is a genuinely two-way process – with time set out for draft updates and challenges, and feedback being sought on the likes of priority engagement themes.
What are the challenges funds are facing?
One of the main challenges is that responsible investment is an area which understandably stirs up a lot of strong views and emotions – from the elected members of our authority, scheme members and other parties. It is also a very nuanced topic – there are certain names which people aren’t happy to see associated with SYPA but we believe that engagement with those companies is more effective than simply divesting from them.
With the LGPS, there is always the possibility of political change and how this might impact responsible investment in future – but it’s important that we continue to focus on why this aspect is important. We want to invest in good companies which address ESG risks properly. That isn’t just because we’re nice people (we are nice people but…) it’s because these companies have been shown to perform better and deliver more long-term value.
How can pools provide genuine oversight of legacy private market positions and add value on an advisory basis?
Border to Coast has built a highly experienced and well-resourced private markets team since the advent of pooling, which has provided SYPA and our fellow partner funds with a centre of expertise.
These pooled arrangements have already resulted in significant cost savings and some promising early performance figures. Given their centralised expertise, it makes sense for Border to Coast to take on our legacy private market holdings too.
Of course, this is going to require some additional resourcing (we have around 200 legacy holdings at SYPA alone!) but it makes sense for those further upgrades to be made at the pool level so that all the partner funds benefit.
More Related Content...
|
|
|