Brunel Pension Partnership, Bristol, England committed £626 million ($766 million) to a new private equity fund run by Neuberger Berman.
The manager will help Brunel to commit most of the capital to third-party primary funds, opportunistic secondaries and co-investments via Neuberger Berman's commingled funds, the release said.
The fund, NB Clifton Private Equity III, also has a 40% target to impact investments that contribute to solutions for society and the planet, a joint news release said. The remaining 60% of the fund will be invested in line with Brunel's responsible investment policy.
The latest commitment is an expansion of a partnership between Brunel and Neuberger Berman. Brunel made a cornerstone $60 million commitment to the Neuberger Berman Private Equity Impact Fund and made an anchor commitment to NB Private Equity's flagship co-investment fund, both in 2019. It then awarded a £1.3 billion climate transition-linked multiasset credit allocation and committed £175 million to NB Private Debt IV — a senior direct lending fund — in 2021.
"Private equity has always appealed to our clients as a diversifying asset class with attractive risk-return characteristics," Jaime Alvarez, portfolio manager, private equity at Brunel, said in the release. "Private equity also offers a particular opportunity to fulfill our clients' responsible investment ambitions, both through investing with managers that incorporate robust ESG processes, and through increasing our allocation to the rapidly-growing impact investing asset sub-class. We already know Neuberger Berman well and trust its ability to select investments that are not only financially sound but also impactful."
Brunel manages about £38 billion in assets on behalf of 10 local government pension funds. Neuberger Berman had $439 billion in client assets under management as of Sept. 30.
