London Pension Funds Authority is Hiring another 20 Investment Professionals
Edmund Truell, chairman of the London Pension Funds Authority, announced that the group is looking to hire another 20 investment professionals by 2019, specializing in equities and illiquid investments such as property, private equity and infrastructure.
Susan Martin, chief executive of the scheme, said: “The best way to reduce costs is to do as much as we can in-house.”
The
LPFA’s move to bring more investment in-house reflects similar
decisions by Australian Super, Australia’s largest pension fund, which
plans to hire 50 in-house investment staff, and Railpen, the £20bn UK
pension scheme.
One
of the earliest casualties of the LPFA’s increased in-house drive was
Brevan Howard, the hedge fund, which lost its LPFA mandate in June.
“They
were very expensive, did not offer value for money net of fees and did
not meet our transparency requirements,” said Mr Truell.
The
potential for further contract losses or reduced fees looms for the
remaining fund houses the LPFA currently outsources investment mandates
to if the scheme continues to pool its assets with other local authority
funds.
The
LPFA teamed up with the Lancashire pension fund two weeks ago to create
a commonly managed, jointly invested pool of assets in an attempt to
reduce costs.
The
combined schemes are in “advanced negotiations” with more than a dozen
local authority pension funds also interested in joining the combined
structure, according to Mr Truell.
Source: Financial Times
