FUTURE
CONFERENCES
Purpose
This conference will look at topical themes including sustainable investment specific to a LGPS audience.
Programme
09.00
Registration
09.30
Session 1: Overview of LGPS Pooling and Consolidation and
Getting the Best out of Local Investing
Moderator:
Phil Triggs
Tri-Borough Director of Treasury and Pensions
Westminster City Council
Chris Hitchen
immediate past Chair
Border to Coast Pensions Partnership
Consolidation in the LGPS – Border to Coast’s Story
​
Senior Manager, Investment Partnerships & Advisory Team
Better Society Capital
How a growing impact asset class, Social Outcomes Partnerships, can help LGPS deliver on their local investment ambitions
Local investment is playing a vital role in supporting communities across the UK and the LGPS are playing an ever increasing part. Better Society Capital (BSC), the UK’s largest social impact investor, has been building expertise and track record in local investing for over a decade. This session will provide a deep dive into an emerging asset class delivering local investment - Social Outcomes Partnerships, that has already benefited from some LGPS investment. Now the UK government have announced a significant commitment to the market - the £500m Better Futures Fund to support vulnerable children and their families in local areas - that will catalyse up to £1bn of Social Outcomes Partnerships over the next decade. This session will explain how this presents an exciting opportunity for the LGPS, including how these partnerships work, our lessons learnt from investing into this asset class for over 10 years and sharing detailed case studies which have delivered both financial returns for investors and deep impact on issues affecting communities across the UK.
Investors perspective
10.45
Tea/Coffee
11.15
Session 2: Stability in a changing world - Risk Frameworks and Scientific Fixed Income
Moderator:
Head of Capital Markets and a Senior Investment Research Consultant
Hymans Robertson
and
Risk Management frameworks and Currency
Joe will discuss, in the context of the current economic backdrop and improved LGPS funding positions, some of the key risks facing LGPS and whether they can be managed more effectively in the new world of Pooling.
Francesca will then explore the vital role of currency management in LGPS portfolios. Over the past 50 years, sterling–USD rates have fluctuated between 1.05 and 2.40, with significant implications for funding levels. A £1bn LGPS fund with 50% foreign assets and no currency hedging could face major volatility. While hedged share classes offer simplicity, they often carry high fees and performance drag. Francesca will explore alternative routes for hedging such as bespoke, portfolio-level hedging strategies that are more cost-effective and efficient. She will also highlight dynamic hedging’s flexibility in managing cash flows and mitigating risk, enhancing portfolio resilience and stability.
The session will conclude with an analysis of how these factors pose risks to LGPS and present actionable investment solutions to mitigate those risks effectively.
CEO and co-founder
BlueCove
Introduction to scientific fixed income
Science and technology are today in only the early stages of disrupting the active management of liquid credit portfolios. This talk presents a brief introduction to the field of scientific investing in fixed income:
• What is scientific investing and what is it not; is this new?
• How does it compare to traditional discretionary approaches?
• Why should investors care?
• Beta, alpha, or mix both in investment portfolios?
• How is AI relevant to scientific fixed income?
12.30
Lunch
13.30
Session 3: A legal update on Net Zero, ESG & Sustainability followed by a case for UK Woodland
Chief Economist
Fathom Consulting
Investing in natural capital - the case of UK woodland
Andrew will explain why the 'law of one price' does not apply to UK carbon markets, with the amount people are willing to pay either for the right to emit a tonne of CO2, or for someone else to clean up past emissions, ranging from £20 to £400. These prices are likely to converge, but at what level is unclear. If they converge anywhere close to the upper end of that range, then the return to investors in UK woodland would be substantial.
14.45
Tea/Coffee
15.15
Session 4: Making sense of valuation
Aon
Isio
Pension Fund perspective
16.30
Close of conference followed by drinks reception
Cost
The conference is by invitation only for pension funds and other institutional investors and we welcome new attendees from these investors. Therefore if you are not already receiving an invitation please contact us. A limited number of Complimentary invitations are available to genuine pension fund representatives (executives and trustees) and other approved institutional investors. However, to ensure we have room for as many funds as possible, we have to limit free places to 3 attendees per approved organisation thereafter a reduced rate fee is payable per delegate. Furthermore, SPS always reserves the right of admission (free or paid) and our decision is final.
Venue
Farmers and Fletchers in the City
3 Cloth St,
London
EC1A 7LD
Tel: 020 7600 2064
Farmers and Fletchers is 1 minute from Barbican tube station, 5 minutes from St.Paul’s tube station
and very convenient for the new Farringdon Crossrail link.
Media Partners
