Agenda and minutes

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Items
No. Item

22.

EMERGENCY EVACUATION PROCEDURE

The Chair will draw attention to the emergency evacuation procedure as set out under Note 9.

 

Minutes:

The Democratic Services Officer read out the procedure.

23.

DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

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 complete the green interest forms circulated to groups in their pre-meetings (which will be announced at the Council Meeting) 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 or a member of his staff before the meeting to expedite dealing with the item during the meeting.

Minutes:

There were none.

24.

APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE AND SUBSTITUTIONS

To receive any declarations from Members of the Committee and Officers of personal/prejudicial interests in respect of matters for consideration at this meeting, together with their statements on the nature of any such interest declared.

 

Minutes:

Apologies were received from Councillor Chris Pearce and Councillor Cherry Beath.

25.

TO ANNOUNCE ANY URGENT BUSINESS AGREED BY THE CHAIR

Minutes:

There was none.

26.

ITEMS FROM THE PUBLIC - TO RECEIVE DEPUTATIONS, STATEMENTS, PETITIONS OR QUESTIONS

Minutes:

There were none.

27.

ITEMS FROM COUNCILLORS AND CO-OPTED AND ADDED MEMBERS

To deal with any petitions or questions from Councillors and, where appropriate, co-opted and added members.

 

Minutes:

There were none.

28.

MINUTES: 18 NOVEMBER 2015 pdf icon PDF 78 KB

Minutes:

These were approved as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

29.

REVIEW OF INVESTMENT PERFORMANCE FOR PERIODS ENDING 31 DEC 2015 pdf icon PDF 62 KB

Before discussing Exempt Appendix 3 the Panel is invited to pass the following resolution:

 

 

The Committee having been satisfied that the public interest would be better served by not disclosing relevant information and in accordance with the provisions of Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, RESOLVES that the public should be excluded from the meeting for Exempt Appendix 1 and the reporting of this item be prevented under Section 100A(5A), because of the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraph 1 and 2 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act, as amended.

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Assistant Investments Manager presented the summary report. He highlighted the following:

 

  • After a fall in the previous quarter, the Fund’s assets increased by £104m in the quarter ending 31st December 2015. However since the end of the quarter there had been significant volatility in markets.

 

  • JP Morgan Hedge Fund mandate was now fully funded.

 

  • The agreed changes to the bond portfolio were being implemented and it was hope that this would be completed by the end of the current quarter, subject to market conditions.

 

  • Two managers were rated as amber: Schroder Global Equity, though their relative performance had continued to improve during the quarter and Partners Group. Partner’s IRR return was 8.8% p.a., compared to their IRR target of 10%. They were thus within their tolerance for a green rating on the basis of IRR returns. They were rated amber because they were behind the cash + 4% benchmark over 3 years. It was expected that over time that the IRR and cash + 4% performance would converge. The IRR figure was probably a truer measure of performance of this type of mandate.

 

Members agreed to focus on IRR returns versus IRR target in future reporting of Partners performance.

 

  • Two allocations were outside the normal range under the new rebalancing policy. Developed market equities were overweight pending the drawdown of investments for the infrastructure mandate. Emerging market equities were underweight; because of the recent volatility in emerging markets officers were monitoring the position closely.

 

  • As requested at the previous meeting Mercer had provided the ESG rating for each manager.

 

  • The implementation of MIFID II had been delayed until January 2018.

 

Mr Turner introduced the Mercer performance report. He said that the performance of equity markets so far this year had probably been the worst ever, though they had rallied recently. Overall they were down about 7%. Developing markets had done a bit better than developed markets. The fall in equities had as usual encouraged a move into gilts. Gilt yields, which had been low, had consequently fallen further. Index-linked gilts were the best proxy for the Fund’s liabilities. The result was that the liabilities of the Fund had probably risen about 6%, while the value of its assets had dropped about 5%. This was in the context of the actuarial valuation taking place on 31st March this year. However, the liabilities might not be as great as they appeared on a gilt basis, because of the changes in the way they would be valued.

 

Mr Giles commented on the performance of managers and asset classes. He said that the majority of managers had outperformed over the longer term and that Schroders were improving. The allocation to JP Morgan Hedge Fund was now fully in place. There were still some illiquid assets with Man Group that needed to be phased out over time. He drew attention to the summary of manager performance on agenda pages 27 and 28.

 

Members asked about the ESG ratings. Mr Turner explained that  ...  view the full minutes text for item 29.