Issue - meetings

The Committee considered, noted and approved the revised Investment Strategy Statement.

At the previous Committee meeting in November 2021, members agreed to the update of the Investment Strategy Statement (“ISS”) to reflect the commitment to setting decarbonisation targets for the Fund. Mrs Fielder said that a more detailed review of the ISS would take place later in the year. As required and agreed at the last Committee meeting, the Fund agreed to consult with employers on this and Mrs Fielder confirmed no negative responses had been received as a result of the consultation. Page 100 and 102 of the proposed Investment Strategy Statement highlighted the main areas updated.

            Mr Hibbert expressed his view that although he agreed with the content of the revised ISS, he was unable to agree the recommendation. This was because he believed that there was insufficient information from the Wales Pension Partnership (“WPP”) to evidence the Fund’s aspirations to be 'Responsible Investors', 'Impact Investors' or effective 'Stewards' of all the Fund’s monies due to the failure of WPP to provide a report on their stock lending activities to the Committee. Mrs Fielder confirmed that she would raise this matter at the next WPP Responsible Investment (“RI”) sub-group.

            In regards to the Stock Lending Agreement, Mr Hibbert accepted that 5% of stock is retained for voting but wished to understand the impact of stock lending on the value of the stock over the period of lending. He also wanted to understand the time taken for the stock to regain the value prior to any lending. This would help him determine whether the lending fees paid to the Fund actually provide the added value expected.

            Mr Hibbert asked the Committee to formally request the stock lending activity to date from WPP and therefore he disagreed to the recommendation.

Additionally, Mr Hibbert noted a grammatical error on the second paragraph on page 93 which Mrs Fielder confirmed would be corrected in the final published version.

RESOLVED:

The Committee considered, noted and approved the revised Investment Strategy Statement.