The National Grid UK Pension Scheme (NGUKPS) has selected Octopus Renewables, the specialist clean energy investor and part of Octopus Group, to manage a new UK corporate pension mandate to invest £185m (€217m) in UK solar and onshore wind assets.

The funds will be invested through the Renewable Energy Income Partnership III (REIP III), the third fund in Octopus Renewables’ institutional investor income partnership strategy.

Octopus has discretion in managing the 25-year mandate, which benefits from its attractive pipeline of opportunities and proven origination capability. Octopus Renewables is the largest commercial scale solar energy investor in Europe and has more than £3.2bn of energy assets under management.

PPF reaches 1,000th scheme milestone

The Pension Protection Fund (PPF), the body that protects members of UK defined benefit pension schemes, has reached its 1,000th scheme milestone as the retirement benefits of almost 4,000 members of the Carillion Rail (GTRM) Pension Scheme have been secured following its transfer to the lifeboat scheme.

Members that were over the scheme’s normal pension age at the time of insolvency will receive 100% of what was in payment at that time, and those under that age will receive 90% subject to a cap.

Without the PPF, members of the scheme would have received a share of the assets following the insolvency of the sponsoring employer amounting to 55% of their promised pension.

The PPF now manages £32bn €37.6bn) of assets for close to 260,000 members located across the UK and globally.

Currently, PPF membership is split between almost 155,000 already receiving their pensions and close to 105,000 members who will start their payments in future

Cambridge Associates hires investment director

Ben Alves Walters has been appointed an investment director within the pensions practice at Cambridge Associates. Based in London, he will work primarily with European pension funds helping clients invest, manage and monitor their global private investment allocations.

He joined Cambridge Associates this month after more than two and a half years in the manager research investment team at Willis Towers Watson (WTW). Prior to WTW, he trained as a chartered accountant at PwC, before moving internally into the transaction services division.

 

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