Border to Coast launches fixed income fund

Border to Coast Pensions Partnership has launched its first fixed income product, providing partner funds with access to the investment-grade credit market.

The £2.5 billion Sterling Investment Grade Credit Fund will focus on sterling-denominated bonds issued by a variety of global companies.

M&G, Royal London Asset Management and Insight Investment have been appointed to manage the fund. The initial investors in the fund – which is expected to result in aggregate fee savings of £0.5 million a year across the pool – were East Riding of Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Tyne and Wear, South Yorkshire and Warwickshire.

The launch involved the transfer of assets of more than £2.1 billion over four weeks, via a risk-managed transition strategy, implemented by BlackRock, with Inalytics supporting Border to Coast.

Ian Bainbridge, Head of Pensions at Tyne and Wear Pension Fund and Chair of the Border to Coast Officers Group, said: “This is an important building block for our strategic allocation and was a key priority for us as part of the de-risking of our investment strategy following our triennial valuation. We are happy that Border to Coast remains committed to engaging partner funds in the fund design process and continues to build cost-effective investment options across a wide variety of asset classes.”