Barnet recommended to invest in RE, PE

Investment consultant Hymans Robertson has presented a recommendation to Barnet Pension Fund to replace its current exposures to diversified growth funds with investments in property, private equity and emerging market listed equities.

Following a meeting between the firm and the scheme’s pension fund committee at the end of May, Hymans presented a paper recommending an investment of £30 million in the Partners 2019 private debt fund – Barnet is currently invested in Partners 2015 and 2017 funds – to address an underweighting in that asset class and a delay in the launch of the London CIV’s private debt fund. Barnet’s £600 million in assets are pooled into London CIV.

Following a training session that the committee took covering the measurement of performance of unlisted investments, the committee agreed to invest £30 million with Partners Group MAC 2019 Fund, stated Anisa Darr, Barnet’s director of finance.

The committee has also agreed to acquire holdings valued at £27 million in the Aberdeen Standard Long Lease Property Fund and to defer the planned investment in the London CIV’s emerging market fund following the resignation of the team who would have managed this investment.

Darr also noted that the committee planned meetings with potential private equity managers during the summer.