The London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham Pension Fund hired Allspring Global Investments and Insight Investment for a new buy and maintain climate transition credit mandate.
Allspring will oversee 10% of the pension fund's £1.2 billion ($1.5 billion) total assets, and Insight Investment will handle 5% through the London CIV, according to a release.
London CIV, with £13.4 billion assets under active management and £12.6 billion in passive funds, manages 60% of the local government pension funds for London's 32 boroughs. Six funds invest in private markets and 16 in public markets.
Allspring's Climate Transition Global Buy and Maintain fund launched in October focuses on high-quality debt issuance from companies with clear net-zero alignment goals. Since a soft launch in August that accrued $100 million in institutional commitments, it is now being offered to a wider investor base, said Allspring, with $551billion in assets under advisement.
Andy Sowerby, head of Allspring's international client group, said they are seeing increased demand for fixed income from investors also focused on decarbonization.
Henrietta Paquement, head of global fixed income and sustainability, said in the release that the 2022 correction in fixed income markets "creates this year's opportunity. After more than a decade of depressed yields, investors are now able to take advantage of much more constructive market conditions to build diversified exposure to high-quality credits."
Calls to Insight Investment and London CIV were not immediately returned.
