Redington has today announced its appointment as strategic investment consultant to Centrica’s DB pension schemes, which will include oversight of the schemes’ recently-adopted Outsourced Chief Investment Officer (OCIO) model.
Centrica is one of the UK’s leading energy services and solutions providers and has three pension schemes with more than 36,000 members and assets totalling circa £10 billion.
In April 2022 the Trustees of Centrica’s schemes announced plans to strengthen their investment oversight by moving to an OCIO model with Schroders Solutions. In addition to strategic investment insight, journey planning and risk management, as part of the mandate, Redington will oversee the implementation of the OCIO’s agreed strategy and provide ongoing oversight and recommendations relating to the evolution of the relationship.
In July Redington announced that Nick Lewis had stepped into the role of managing director, leading on the development of the firm’s fiduciary manager, implementation manager and OCIO oversight propositions.
Nick Lewis commented: “Trustees are navigating an increasingly complex investment and regulatory landscape. Against this backdrop, the OCIO model has been gaining momentum, giving trustees access to specialist investment research and operational efficiency, whilst allowing them to keep control of important strategic decisions. But it’s not a silver bullet. It’s critical that schemes also prioritise access to impartial monitoring and input into decision-making. In this way, trustees increase their chances of achieving a ‘best of all worlds’ approach.
“We are hugely excited by our appointment as strategic investment consultant within the Centrica pension schemes’ next-generation investment model – their ‘belt and braces’ approach signals the care and ambition the schemes’ Trustees and Schroders are taking with this project. We look forward to playing our part in securing the benefits of more than 36,000 Centrica pension scheme members.”
Allan Whalley, Chair of the Centrica pension schemes’ Trustees commented: “The move to an OCIO model is an extremely important milestone in the evolution of the three Centrica pension schemes. From the outset, our priority has been to surround ourselves with the right experts who understand the unique nature of the schemes and what’s needed to develop their specific journey plans. After a rigourous selection process, it was clear that Redington’s experience in helping large pension schemes achieve maximum value from OCIOs made them the right provider to support us on this transition and beyond. We cannot wait to see what the future holds.”
Redington works with pension funds with assets of over £600 billion, including a number of large schemes with an OCIO.
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