Issue - meetings

To receive the Brent Pension Fund Q4 2025-26 Investment Monitoring Update Report.

To receive the Brent Pension Fund Q4 2025-26 Investment Monitoring Update Report.

(Agenda republished to include the attached report on 11 February 2026)

The Chair invited James Glasgow (Hymans Robertson) to introduce a report, which outlined the performance of the Brent Pension Fund over the second half of 2025.  In presenting the report, members were advised that the asset allocations referenced in the report reflected the current portfolio as at the reporting date rather than the new long-term strategy agreed under the Investment Strategy Review, which would be updated in the subsequent report. The key points highlighted were as follows:

In noting the outline provided in relation to market background covering the monitoring period:

·            The US Federal Reserve and the Bank of England had both reduced interest rates, with the Federal Reserve cutting to a range of 3.5–3.75% and the Bank of England to 3.75% respectively, representing a positive direction of travel. A different picture had emerged in Europe and Japan, where rates had been cut and raised respectively.

·            UK inflation had remained more challenging than anticipated at 3.4% over the period, although it had been announced on the day of the meeting that it had fallen to 3.0%. Gilt yields had remained broadly stable, having reverted from the very low levels of a decade ago to a more moderate basis.

·            Gold had performed strongly over the period, largely attributed to investors moving away from growth assets towards protection assets amid unpredictability around US administration announcements and tariff policy.

·            From an asset class perspective, returns had been broadly positive across the board. Global equities led with returns of 12.2% over the period, with UK and Pacific markets outperforming US assets. The significant concentration of market capital indices in US equities, particularly the Magnificent Seven at approximately 60% of market cap weight, had prompted some reallocation of assets towards European and Pacific markets. Emerging markets had also performed strongly, driven in part by correlation with the US dollar.

In relation to total Fund performance members were advised that

·            The Fund had returned 9.4% over the last six months, representing a 0.5% outperformance relative to the index, placing the Fund in double-digit returns over the last twelve months. Over the last three years, the Fund had achieved an annualised return of 10.6%, which was noted as a strong result. Performance had been predominantly driven by global equity mandates, with UK equities and emerging market equities also performing well over the period. The Fund had posted a positive return over the second half of 2025, ending the period with a valuation of £1,491.7m, up from £1,360.6m at the end of Q2 2025.

Moving on to consider performance relating to Fund Managers, members were advised that:

·            The Fund’s passive global equity mandates were again the main contributors to the total return over the period, with UK equities also performing well. Emerging market equities provided very strong performance over the period. The multi-asset funds provided steady support, and the multi-asset credit and gilts funds delivered modest positive returns over the period. On a relative basis the Fund outperformed its benchmark by 0.5% over the period but remained slightly  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7