Cambridgeshire cuts equity for PE, infrastructure

The £3.2 billion Cambridgeshire County Council Pension Fund has been steadily increasing allocations to longer duration investments such as private equity and infrastructure, whilst reducing the dependency on listed equities. Its latest annual report showed that this has provided greater diversification across asset classes as well as reducing the scheme’s exposure to equity risk.

The scheme has shifted its 68% equity allocation to 58%, its 21% alternative investments were increased to 30%, and fixed income was increased from 10% to 12%. A 1% cash allocation was removed.

The report also showed that there was an increase in total assets of £223 million over the March 2018 valuation of £2.97 billion.

The fund returned 7.1% for the financial year ending March 2019, underperforming its benchmark of 8.9%, mainly reflecting underperformance of one of Cambridgeshire’s active global equity managers and its strategic bonds mandate. However, the fund significantly outperformed the Local Authority Universe average performance of 6.6% and Consumer Price Index (CPI ) increase of 1.9%.

Terry Rogers, the scheme’s chair, noted that the continued development of the ACCESS asset pool is progressing at a steady pace and generating significant value for money benefits for all participants.