IPE Awards (Themed): Brunel PP wins climate related risk management, ESG

Brunel Pension Partnership, one of eight UK Local Government Pensions Scheme (LGPS) pools, bagged two themed awards this year: Climate Related Risk Management and ESG.

“Brunel leads by example and its innovative five areas of focus with climate policy move beyond an internal focus on climate risks,” said a judge for the IPE Awards 2020.

Another judge said that Brunel PP had “ambitious vision to deliver a meaningful strategy to a diverse member base, with impressive results and initiatives, such as the Norfolk greenhouse project and outcomes report”.

Among several initiatives, the asset owner published its first annual responsible investment and stewardship outcomes report in June, positioning itself as an early mover with regard to reporting aimed at meeting the UK’s updated stewardship code.

Accepting the Climate Related Risk Management award, Faith Ward, chief responsible investment officer at Brunel, said: ”We are delighted that Brunel Pension Partnership’s work on climate change, particularly its plan to build a financial system fit for a low carbon future, has been recognised by IPE.”

PGGM and Alecta won the award for Innovation.

According to one judge, the duo form an “innovative and ground-breaking partnership that will bring benefits to banking markets while providing investment opportunities for pensions – a win-win for both PGGM and Alecta”. 

Tony Persson, head of fixed income and strategy at Alecta, thanked the judges for “seeing how important and unprecedented the Alecta-PGGM corporation is, and how it will create long-term value for all our customers”.

Martijn van der Molen, senior director credit and insurance linked investments at PGGM, added: “On behalf of PGGM, I would also like to thank IPE and the judges for recognising this unique achievement. We’re thrilled that Alecta along side us is a long-term like-minded partner in a growing but young market.”

Alecta and PGGM signed a “unique” agreement in May to co-invest in credit risk sharing (CRS) transactions. Last month they entered into a credit-risk-sharing deal with JP Morgan that would cover around $2.5bn (€2.1bn) of corporate loans.

For the Risk Management award, Amonis OFP was victorious because, according to a judge, “the huge variety of asset risk sources integrated in Amonis’s measurement activities is impressive”.

Tom Mergaerts, CEO of Amonis, said: “This indeed is a big recognition for the work and effort that our whole team puts in every day.”

Amonis OFP, a healthcare pension fund, is among a breed of experienced and sophisticated Belgian institutional investors and global diversification is one of the main principles of its investment philosophy.

It is the fourth-largest pension fund in Belgium and one of the oldest in the country, and probably in Europe. 

Please tune in here for day 2 of the IPE Conference & Awards 2020 to see who has won in the country and regional awards categories.