Merton Pension Fund has underperformed its benchmark, reporting an £8.1 million loss in the first quarter of 2025. The fund's valuation stood at £955.8 million as of March 31, 2025, according to a performance report discussed at the Merton Council Pensions Committee meeting on June 26, 2025.
The report, prepared by Hymans Robertson, investment and performance consultants, revealed that the fund recorded an absolute return of -0.5% during Q1 2025, underperforming its aggregate benchmark by -1.0%. Over longer periods, the fund also lagged, with relative returns of -2.1% and -3.2% p.a. over 12 months and 3 years, respectively.
The underperformance was attributed to heightened uncertainty over US tariffs,
which particularly affected equity mandates. The report also noted that officers agreed to remove the allocation to UBS GEM HALO, splitting the proceeds between the LCIV Insight Buy and Maintain and the LCIV JP Morgan Emerging Market Equity Fund.
The Pensions Committee, which includes Stephen Alambritis MBE (Cabinet Member for Finance and Corporate Services), Laxmi Attawar, John Braithwaite, Emma Price, Roger Kershaw and Nemashe Sivayogan, also reviewed the fund's administration performance from April 2024 to March 2025 and received an update from the London CIV at the meeting. The minutes from the previous meeting on March 20, 2025, were approved, which included a discussion of the Q4 2024 fund performance report, where the fund outperformed its benchmark.