Minutes of meeting
Renfrewshire Council · 20 November 2024
Back to Investment Review Board — 20 November 2024 and its agenda
Text extracted from the council's PDF. Layout and reading order may differ from the original.
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Minute of Meeting Investment Review Board Date Time Venue Wednesday, 20 November 2024 11:00 Remotely via MS Teams, Present Councillor Jacqueline Cameron, Councillor Alison Ann-Dowling, Councillor Neill Graham, Councillor Iain Nicolson, Councillor John Shaw Chair Councillor Shaw, Convener, presided. In Attendance C McCourt, Head of Finance & Procurement, G Borland, Finance Manager, A Burns, Corporate Finance Manager, and J Barron, Committee Services Officer (all Finance & Resources). Also in Attendance D Watson, Investment Consultant Hymans Robertson LLP, G Brisbane and J Ryan, LGT Wealth Management Limited, formerly abrdn Capital Limited. Recording of Meeting Prior to the commencement of the meeting, the Convener intimated that this meeting of this Board would be recorded and that the recording would be available to watch on the Council’s website. Declarations of Interest and Transparency Statements There were no declarations of interest or transparency statements intimated prior to the commencement of the meeting.
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1 Minutes of Previous Meetings There was submitted the Minute of the meeting of the Investment Review Board held on 23 November 2024 and the note of the inquorate meeting of 5 June 2024. DECIDED: That the Minutes be approved. 2 Paisley and Renfrew Common Good Funds six-month report to 30 September 2024 There was submitted a report by the Director of Finance & Resources together with a presentation by D Watson from Hymans Robertson LLP, relative to the Paisley and Renfrew Common Good Funds, a review of investment income and the key issues relating to the Paisley and Renfrew Common Good Funds. G Brisbane, Senior Investment Manager and Charity Lead (Scotland) LGT Wealth Management Limited (formerly abrdn) also spoke to the presentation relative to the Paisley and Renfrew Common Good funds investments performance. The presentation referred to a review of the Investment Managers’ performance for the six months to 30 September 2024; an update of markets; and the current economic climate. DECIDED: That the report and presentation be noted. 3 Review of Investment Policy Statement There was submitted a report by the Director of Finance & Resources relative to the scope and content of the proposed Investment Policy Statement. The Council had arranged for the investments of the Paisley and Renfrew Common Good Funds to be managed by LGT Wealth Management Limited and had agreed with the manager a number of principles governing decisions regarding those investments. The principles covered a range of issues, such as what benchmark should be employed against to assess the manager’s performance and any restrictions the manager required to observe in choosing sectors or classes of asset in which to invest. These requirements were formalised in an Investment Policy Statement, which was reviewed annually to ensure that the principles remained appropriate to the Council's requirements. The Statement of Investment Policy was last reviewed in November 2023, and having undertaken the annual review the Finance Manager outlined the main amendments proposed. A copy of the revised Statement of Investment Principles document was appended to the report.
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DECIDED: That the revised Statement of Investment Principles, a copy of which was attached to the report, be approved. Sederunt Prior to consideration of the following item of business Councillor Nicolson joined the meeting. Order of Business The Convener intimated that he proposed to add an item to the agenda in relation to the Statement of Investment Policy and would consider the item after item 3 on the agenda. 4 Overview of the Statement of Investment Policy G Brisbane, LGT Wealth Management Limited, gave an overview of the Statement of Investment Policy, in terms of the decision-making process from a Trustees’ perspective. . Members agreed this was helpful and requested that this overview training be included in the Councillor’s Development week, especially after elections when there may be new Members appointed to the Investment Review Board. DECIDED: That appropriate arrangements be made for the overview training to be included in the Councillor’s Development Week. 5 Date of Next Meeting DECIDED: That the next meeting of the Investment Review Board be held on 11 June 2025.