ACCESS Pool, a collaboration of Central, Eastern and Southern Shires composed of 11 LGPS Administering Authorities and brought together from the original Pooling guidance in 2015, today announces that it has reached the £50bn assets under management (aum) mark.
Scale
As we approach the final months of 2024, ACCESS is in the process of completing a first pass on the core offering of all asset classes. Rallied by recent market movement, the Pool has seen listed assets held in its Authorised Contractual Scheme (ACS) break through the £30bn mark. The Passive mandates, managed by UBS sits at c.£12.6bn. The Alternative mandates which have been the recent focus of ACCESS, now include +£1.8bn infrastructure, +£4.7bn real estate and +£900m Timber. The Pool is currently working on Private Equity and Private Debt mandates, with the outcome of these searches to be announced in December 2024.
The £50bn milestone, takes the Pooling progress of ACCESS over 75%.
Governance
An FCA entity is at the core of management and regulatory compliance for the investment managers ACCESS utilises. This approach enables it to benefit from the market leading cost savings and risk diversification across the market.
UK infrastructure:
Infrastructure is a key asset class for ACCESS Administering Authorities, and its appointment of two vehicles, from IFM and J.P. Morgan has brought the Pool’s total commitment to infrastructure at £1.8bn. These investment solutions play a significant role in local communities across the United Kingdom, across transportation, social, energy and telecommunications.
UK Growth is a priority investment area of the Pool, and this is evident from partnerships with Orchard Street and LGIM to directly invest in social and affordable housing, as well as impact investment into UK direct real estate – solutions that provide measurable targets to decarbonise, improve health and create social engagement with local communities.
Further to sizeable commitments in infrastructure, ACCESS recently announced further progress made on the Real Estate solution, with the pooling of £4.1bn, in which £3bn is invested in the UK. The further commitments made by Authorities, totalling £600m, covers Long-Lease property, Social and Affordable Housing, and a recent Impact mandate, all across the UK.
Value for money
The Pool has benefited from the expertise of best-in-class managers and value for money is a core criterion of both the Government guidance and ACCESS Authorities.
In our ACS, we now have five-year performance figures showing ACCESS performance of 9.04% against a benchmark of 7.82%, providing an excess return of 1.22% p.a.
Amid the investment outperformance, the Pool continues to deliver economies of scale for Authorities. ClearGlass recently examined the cost transparency initiative templates for the ACCESS ACS and Passive arrangements.
Dr Chris Sier, of ClearGlass, commented: “Once again the ACCESS Pool has shown the effectiveness of its procurement model by achieving over £49mn of fee savings (17bps) for its partner funds.”
Kevin McDonald, Director of the ACCESS Support Unit (ASU), said, “ACCESS has made exceptional pooling progress in reaching this £50bn milestone.
“Importantly, the Pool has demonstrated excellent value for money, delivering an enhanced level of savings, combined with investment outperformance and asset class coverage.
“Looking ahead, ACCESS is well placed to continue to develop the pool and progress will continue.”
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