Agenda and minutes

The Democratic Services Officer read out the procedure.

At this point in the meeting declarations of interest are received from Members in any of the agenda items under consideration at the meeting. Members are asked to indicate:

(a) The agenda item number in which they have an interest to declare.

(b) The nature of their interest.

(c) Whether their interest is a disclosable pecuniary interest or an other interest,  (as defined in Part 2, A and B of the Code of Conduct and Rules for Registration of Interests)

Any Member who needs to clarify any matters relating to the declaration of interests is recommended to seek advice from the Council’s Monitoring Officer before the meeting to expedite dealing with the item during the meeting.

There were none.

Apologies were received from Councillor Gabriel Batt and Bill Marshall. Roger Broughton attended as substitute.

There was none.

There were none.

There were none.

The minutes of the meeting of the 5^th September 2012 were approved as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

The Assistant Investments Manager introduced the report which updated the Panel on routine aspects of the Fund’s investments. The report contained performance statistics for the period ending 30^th September 2012. He referred members to Section 4 (Page 9) of the JLT report (Appendix 2) and pointed out the effect on the 3 year risk and return figures of the good performance quarter dropping out at the start of the reporting period. He also highlighted that the aggregate manager relative performance was positive overall for the quarter, with several managers (Jupiter, Genesis, RLAM and Invesco) showing a very positive 3 year overall performance outperforming their target over this period. TT had shown particular improvement, but MAN and Schroder Equity were being closely monitored.

The Investments Manager added that the indicative investment return performance for the overall fund for first quarter was 3.6%.  The Chair commented that the 3 year property return was still not fully invested. The global property portfolio managed by Partners was still being vested, therefore the 3 year return does not adequately reflect underlying investment performance. However a number of underlying funds had achieved a level vesting where the performance is meaningful at the underlying fund level and these will be included in future reports.

The Assistant Investments Manager said returns data on individual Partner’s funds only becomes meaningful once that fund reached 50% invested. Tony Earnshaw commented that 3 years seemed the minimum term over which to measure performance, given the 10 year plus time horizon of the underlying funds. The Investments Manager pointed out that the initial costs of property investments are proportionally higher, so this affected early returns. The Head of Business, Finance and Pensions added that fund managers needed to be challenged about the spread of investments. A Member asked whether the fund was considering further tactical switches and was informed that JLT would continue to advise, but they had not highlighted any specific opportunities. 

The Chair suggested that if these Panel meetings were happening at the wrong part of the reporting cycle, then the Members should be prepared to call a special meeting to discuss any urgent strategic or tactical issues – this was unanimously agreed. A Member commented on the use of dynamic allocation funds which can take advantage of tactical switches – this would obviate the need for extra meetings. She asked whether there were concerns with Schroders and was informed that they would be reviewed in February, along with MAN.

The Investment Manager introduced this item. She confirmed that the Panel were due to meet with Schroders and MAN at the February 22nd 2013 meeting.

The Panel unanimously agreed that the workplan be recommended to the Committee.