Agenda and minutes

The Joint Governance Committee was advised that Cllr. Aaron Shotton had been replaced by Cllr. Ted Palmer. The Chair thanked Cllr. Shotton for his contributions on behalf of the Joint Governance Committee.

Apologies for absence were received from Cllr. Ted Palmer and Mr Dafydd Edwards, with Delyth Jones-Thomas attending as Mr Edward’s deputy.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the Joint Governance Committee meeting held on 17^th July 2020 be signed as a correct record.

[Note: Due to technical difficulties, Councillor Clive Lloyd took over the chairing of the proceedings from this item onwards.]

The Joint Committee received a progress update in relation to the following key areas:

-          Governance;

-          Ongoing establishment;

-          Operator services;

-          Communications and reporting;

-          Training and meetings; and

-          Resources, budget and fees.

The JGC was advised that the scheme member representation proposal was still being developed and would be brought to a future meeting of the JGC.

In response to a query, the JGC was advised that a knowledge assessment questionnaire would be considered in line with a Requirements & Ambitionsquestionnaire that was currently being drafted.

A question was raised regarding the percentage of total pension fund assets that had been transitioned into the WPP. The JGC was advised that the total percentage was around 65% and that the figure varied between the individual Pension Funds.

RESOLVED that the Host Authority update be received.

The Joint Committee received an update from Duncan Lowman and Richard Thornton of Link Fund Solutions and Sasha Mandich of Russell Investments on the progress of the Wales Pension Partnership in relation to the following key areas:

-       Current Fund Holdings;

-       Fund Launch Progress;

-       Corporate Update and Engagement.

The JGC was advised that Richard Thornton had been appointed Head of Relationships Management within Link.

RESOLVED that the update be received.

The JGC received a presentation on the performance reports for the Global Growth Fund, the Global Opportunities Fund and the UK Opportunities Fund as at 30 June 2020.

It was noted that the market values of all three sub funds had increased during the last quarter. WPP Global Growth Fund increased from £1,961,972,648 to £2,373,367,154, WPP Global Opportunities Fund increased from £1,881,872,223 to £2,230,646,643 and the UK Opportunities Fund increased from £480,052,962 to £545,585,824. From inception to date, Global Growth and Global Opportunities had outperformed their benchmarks by 0.42% (gross) / (underperformed by 0.01) (net), and 0.93% (gross) / 0.57% (net). UK Opportunities had underperformed their benchmarks by 1.11% (gross) / 1.39% (net).

In response to a query on target weights, the JGC was advised that these were the weights that had been agreed when the funds had been launched and  they could be rebalanced subject to further discussions and agreement from the OWG and JGC.

RESOLVED that the performance reports for the WPP Global Growth Fund, the Global Opportunities Fund and the UK Opportunities Fund as at 30 June 2020 be received.

THE REPORTS RELATING TO THE FOLLOWING ITEM ARE NOT FOR PUBLICATION AS THEY CONTAIN EXEMPT INFORMATION AS DEFINED IN PARAGRAPH 14 OF PART 4 OF SCHEDULE 12A TO THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT ACT 1972 AS AMENDED BY THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT (ACCESS TO INFORMATION) (VARIATION) (WALES) ORDER 2007. IF, FOLLOWING THE APPLICATION OF THE PUBLIC INTEREST TEST, THE JOINT COMMITTEE RESOLVES PURSUANT TO THE ACT TO CONSIDER THESE ITEMS IN PRIVATE, THE PUBLIC WILL BE EXCLUDED FROM THE MEETING DURING SUCH CONSIDERATION.

RESOLVED, pursuant to the Local Government Act 1972, as amended by the Local Government (Access to Information) (Variation) (Wales) Order 2007, that the public be excluded from the meeting during consideration of the following item as the reports contained exempt information as defined in paragraph 14 of Part 4 of Schedule 12A to the Act.

Following the application of the public interest test it was RESOLVED, pursuant to the Act referred to in Minute 7 above, to consider this matter in private, with the public excluded from the meeting, as disclosure would be likely to cause financial harm to the WPP by prejudicing negotiations.

The JGC considered a report on the Stock Lending review as at 30 June 2020.

RESOLVED that the Stock Lending report as at 30 June 2020 be noted.