Border to Coast Pensions Partnership has announced it has significantly expanded its private markets programme to £16bn following further commitments from its LGPS partner funds to two new propositions.
With an additional £3.6bn committed in April, the pool’s private markets programme has grown rapidly in the five years since launch, with approximately £12bn invested to date, while cutting fees by 28%.
The latest commitment includes a £500m pledge to an innovative ‘UK Opportunities’ strategy launched by Border to Coast in April, designed to direct long-term investment into productive finance. It will invest in areas such as housing, transport, energy and growth finance, supporting new building and development across the UK.
The second commitment is a further £1.2bn investment to Border to Coast’s second Climate Opportunities offering, which invests in projects and businesses that are expected to make a material contribution to decarbonising the global economy.
The second offering builds on the £1.4bn already invested through ‘Climate Opportunities 1’, which was launched in 2022.
Joe McDonnell, Border to Coast’s chief Investment officer, said: “The success of our private markets programme to date is testament to the significant benefits pooling continues to bring to the table.
“Our collective scale and strong alignment with our partner funds’ needs has resulted in not only sizeable fee reductions and greater potential for attractive long-term returns, but also access to a broader range of global investments, the development of strategic partnerships with UK and global asset managers, and the ability to focus investment into areas such as climate solutions.
McDonnell said partner fund support for its private markets team ensures “we can maintain a commitment to proprietary research and portfolio management and confidently develop new and innovative propositions”.
And he added: “We are proud to launch the UK Opportunities proposition, a unique offering within the LGPS. The depth and breadth of productive finance assets it targets, funding new building and development here in the UK, as well as the two-way dialogue we expect it to open between local authorities and investors, marks it as an innovative proposition for our partner funds.”
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