We are now several years into our journey to pool investment assets, and this is a good time to take stock of how far we have come, and share our progress so far.
Wiltshire is a member of the Brunel Pension Partnership, along with nine other shareholder funds. We are now moving out of the initial implementation phase, and are looking to the future for the pool. As set out in our business plan actions for 2022/23, we will be actively involved in setting the direction of travel for the Brunel pool, to ensure that Brunel delivers the intended fee savings and investment performance in a cost-efficient way, evidenced through meaningful reporting in line with client requirements, and retains a focus on ensuring that all activities deliver value and map to positive outcomes for the partner funds.
The following timeline shows the progress towards investment pooling made so far. An original implementation plan was agreed with clients at the start of the pooling journey, but this was altered in late 2018 in order to reflect the additional resources required by the pool to deliver the service. The shareholders agreed a compromise position, with an increased budget and a slightly slower delivery of portfolios. The implementation timeline was again paused in March 2020, after consulation and with the approval and support of clients. This was due to the significant increase in market volatility following the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, and wishing to take a cautious position not to transition assets during these market conditions.
The transitions shown below were delivered in line with the updated implementation plan.
The following graph shows the percentage of assets pooled vs locally held from inception of pooling to date. This illustrates the steady and consistent progress made by the Fund to deliver investment pooling.
Note: this chart includes the property portfolio in the Mar-22 figures, even though the transition did not happen until 1 April 2022. It is felt that this fuller picture is more meaningful given the transition had already been instructed to go ahead.
 | October 2016 Brunel incorporated |
 | July 2018 Passive equities (£415m) 16% pooled |
 | November 2019 Active global equities (£470m) 33% pooled |
 | December 2019 Passive equities (£140m) 39% pooled |
 | June 2021 Passive gilts (£510m) Multi-asset credit (£155m) 65% pooled |
 | April 2022 Property (£410m) 73% pooled |
What's in the pool compared with what's held locally:
Finally, the following table shows for each of our portfolios whether it is held via the Brunel pool, or locally managed. Reasons are provided for all portfolios which are not yet held via the pool.
| Portfolio | Value as at 31 March 22 (£m) | Pooled? | If not pooled, why not? |
| Brunel passive gilts | 462.2 | Yes | |
| Brunel sustainable equities | 256.8 | Yes | |
| Brunel Global High Alpha (active equities) | 255.0 | Yes | |
| Brunel Secured Income | 210.3 | Yes | |
| Brunel Multi-asset credit | 153.7 | Yes | |
| Brunel private debt | 31.4 | Yes | |
| Brunel private equity | 28.5 | Yes | |
| Brunel Private Infrastructure | 21.0 | Yes | |
| CBRE property | 408.8 | No | Transitioned to the pool on 1 April 2022 |
| Pinebridge bank loans | 325.1 | No | Interim portfolio pending drawdown into Brunel's private debt portfolio |
| Ninety One Emerging Markets Multi-Asset | 292.0 | No | Currently no Brunel solution - a request has been made to Brunel to create an equivalent portfolio |
| Magellan listed Infrastructure | 167.3 | No | Interim portfolio pending drawdown into Brunel's infrastructure portfolio |
| Partners private infrastructure | 92.6 | No | Legacy illiquid assets, which will be held locally until wound down |
| Cash | 0.3 | No | Short term cash balance |
| M&G private debt fund | 0.0 | No | Immaterial - in wind-down |
| Impact affordable housing | Nil | No | New allocation, to be locally managed - no pooled solution and opportunities for local investment |
| Renewable infrastructure | Nil | TBC | New allocation, request made to Brunel to create a suitable portfolio, implementation options being considered |
| Total | 3,206.1 |
Our next post will show the progress we are making with our pooled private markets investments.
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