Newham Council's Pension Fund is grappling with an estimated £9 million deficit as of 31 March 2025, according to a recent update presented to the Pensions Committee. The Appendix 1: Newham Funding Update as at 31 March 2025 details the fund's performance.
The report, which included a Barnett Waddingham (BW) funding update, revealed that the fund's asset valuation stood at £1.896 billion. This represents a decrease of £47 million from the previous quarter, a change attributed to increased volatility in global financial markets. The fund's estimated funding level is at 99.5%.
The report also included a BW report on the fund's investment performance as of 31 March 2025. The report outlined that the LCIV Global Equities Focus performed negatively over the quarter, returning -4.3%, however this was behind the fund's benchmark of the MSCI World Index, outperforming this by 0.4%. This fund is currently on enhanced monitoring by LCIV and will be reviewed in Q2 2025. The next review is scheduled for June 2025, although further details on what 'enhanced monitoring' entails were not specified in the meeting information. An initial investment was made in the LCIV Global Equities Value Fund on 20 February 2025. Performance over the partial period to 31 March 2025 was positive, returning 1.1%, ahead of its benchmark of the MSCI ACWI Index by 9.2%. The size of the initial investment was not specified in the meeting information.
The LGIM Future World Emerging Markets Equity Index Fund continues to perform broadly in line with its benchmark of the Solactive L&G ESG Emerging Markets Index, producing a negative return of -0.7% over the last three months. The meeting information does not provide a long-term performance outlook for this fund. The LGIM ESG Paris Aligned World Equity Fund produced a negative return of -5.6%, which was broadly in line with its benchmark. The portfolio returned -2.5% over the last three months, which was behind its inflation-linked benchmark (RPI + 4% p.a.) by 4.3%.