Gresham House launches a platform for pension funds that want to make an impact
Mammoth pension funds are to be able to invest into smaller, socially responsible projects through a new platform announced today.
The initiative has been created by AIM-quoted investment house Gresham House and has attracted cornerstone interest from Berkshire's local government pension fund, alongside a 20 per cent shareholding the fund has agreed to take in Gresham House itself.
Larger pension funds often struggle to make smaller investments into initiatives that may be local to scheme members or deliver a social good.
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Identifying and managing smaller investments is often uneconomical for funds than are billions of pounds in size. Funds are also constrained investment limits – for example even a comparatively small investment for a pension fund might be the entire share capital of a smaller business.
But Gresham House's first platform of this type, called the British Strategic Investment Fund, will allow pension fund investors the chance to invest in a variety of renewable infrastructure, housing and innovation projects, without needing to enter into lengthy due diligence processes. Instead, funds will rely on Gresham's House's fund managers to allocate capital to impact projects.
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John Lenton, the chairman of the Berkshire pension fund said the unique strategic partnership with the Gresham House will enable the pension fund to gain exposure to "investments in alternative and illiquid assets".
The pension fund's equity investment into Gresham House will be at 325p per share, a premium to Monday's closing price of 303p. Shares in the firm, the history of which can be traced back to 1857, rose over four per cent in today's trading.