{"text":[[{"start":10.22,"text":"Large British pension schemes hold a total of £11.1bn in UK unlisted assets, new data shows, a year after agreeing with the government to increase their investment in private markets."}],[{"start":20.8,"text":"A group of 17 pension providers agreed to the “Mansion House Accord” last year, an industry-wide agreement aimed at encouraging schemes to invest at least 10 per cent of their defined contribution (DC) assets in global private markets by 2030, half of which would be in the UK."}],[{"start":35.92,"text":"The first official update by the trade bodies Pensions UK and the Association of British Insurers revealed that pension schemes held 6.6 per cent of their DC growth-phase assets, or £22.1bn, in global private markets, with 3.3 per cent in the UK."}],[{"start":52.44,"text":"The bulk of money in UK assets — £8bn — went into British real estate, with infrastructure accounting for £1.3bn and private credit making up £900mn. Just £500mn went into domestic private equity."}],[{"start":67.52,"text":"Zoe Alexander, chief policy officer at Pensions UK, said: “Schemes are really focused on how they can up their allocations [in private equity] but clearly there are issues, there are barriers around costs . . . and just making sure that supply and demand meet each other — it’s not always straightforward.”"}],[{"start":84.48,"text":"The aim of the Mansion House Accord was to unlock a large pool of capital to help local economies by channelling money into infrastructure projects and real estate, and to help savers get better long-term returns, as public equity markets continue to shrink. The signatories include Aviva, Legal & General, Royal London and Standard Life."}],[{"start":103.86,"text":"The data shows that the pension providers have signed deals to invest a further £3.3bn in UK private markets. That is yet to be deployed."}],[{"start":112.76,"text":"Yvonne Braun, director of long-term savings at the ABI, said that although she was “encouraged” by the figures, “meeting that target is going to continue to be a challenge”."}],[{"start":121.6,"text":"In part, this is because DC schemes and default funds were growing rapidly, she said, meaning more money will need to be allocated to private markets to meet their targets."}],[{"start":131.44,"text":"Accessing private assets also tends to be more expensive than accessing listed assets, potentially limiting some pension schemes. It also requires specialist expertise."}],[{"start":142.24,"text":"“We need all parties [in] the pension market focused on getting a diversified deal for savers and not just focused on cost,” Braun added. “What we have had historically is much more of a cost focus.”"}],[{"start":156.72,"text":"Alexander said: “It does take time to build these capabilities: you need to hire people, get them up to speed, build relationships. If you’re directly investing, it’s a time-intensive process. So it does take a little while to get off the ground in a meaningful way.”"}],[{"start":172.76,"text":"Michael Moore, chief executive of industry body UK Private Capital, described the update as “disappointing”, adding that the pension providers were not moving quickly enough. “There is a lot of work being undertaken by the pensions industry to facilitate more investment into private capital and we are collaborating closely with them. But we are in danger of missing a once-in-a-generation opportunity for sovereign UK leadership in tech and thousands of new jobs in the economy,” he said."}],[{"start":201.04,"text":"“The government must remain focused on the significant risk of missed opportunities for pension savers to get better returns and for British scale-ups to access the capital they need to grow.”"}],[{"start":211.96,"text":"Alexander, however, expressed caution. “It’s really important that [the] government doesn’t get too closely involved in trying to push this and as you know we’re very concerned about anything that creeps towards ‘mandatory.’ What we want to do is continue to see schemes working constructively with [the] government . . . to try to speed up the deployment.”"}],[{"start":231.84,"text":"She added that forcing pension schemes to invest a prescribed proportion of their assets in the UK could inflate valuations and jeopardise members’ returns. “If the government forces a particular allocation to the UK, then that drives prices up, and that could cause risk to saver returns.”"}],[{"start":232.34,"text":"Additional reporting by Ashley Armstrong"}],[{"start":254.04,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1792562724_2418.mp3"}