The trustees of the Biffa Pension Scheme, have appointed Aon Hewitt to provide investment advice and delegated consulting services.
Biffa, nationwide integrated waste management business, operates the largest industrial and commercial waste collection network in the UK, with more than 63 depots nationwide and over 1,300 collection vehicles.
Aon Hewitt has been providing investment, actuarial and administration services to the defined benefit schemes of Biffa and its antecedent companies – Wessex Waste Management Scheme and later UK Waste Scheme – since 1991. The Biffa Pension Scheme has over 4,500 lives and £250 million in assets.
Aon Hewitt has been advising the scheme on the reorganisation of its investments, including the transition of the scheme’s £70 million equity allocation to Aon Hewitt’s delegated consulting services. The scheme has delegated all day to day investment decisions for this allocation to Aon Hewitt, which has discretionary powers to select and appoint fund managers for this part of the portfolio. In addition, Aon Hewitt will continue to provide traditional investment consulting services for the remaining £180 million which has a portfolio comprising bonds, hedge funds, property and infrastructure.
Zuhair Mohammed, chief executive of Delegated Consulting Services at Aon Hewitt in the UK, said: “We are continuing to see increased interest from pension schemes in delegating their investment decisions. With the Biffa scheme, we have worked with the trustees for nearly 20 years to meet its investment, actuarial and administration needs. With this new mandate we aim to establish a more responsive governance structure and will now take on the responsibility for their key investment decisions relating to their equity allocation.”
Keith Jones, chairman of Trustees at Biffa, said: “We are confident that we will receive Aon Hewitt’s best investment expertise. Its delegated consulting approach offers us the support we now need and the opportunity to capitalise on their knowledge and advice, offering a risk-return benefit that would have been difficult to achieve on our own.”
This is one of several recent new mandates for Aon Hewitt’s delegated consulting services, which include PPG and the Getinge Group.
Source : AON Hewitt Press Release
