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Pensions

With Assets at $11.2B, UK’s Nest to Make Domestic Investments More Transparent

The defined contribution pension plan expects to have more than $26 billion invested in the U.K. by 2030.
By Michael Katz



In an effort to support British businesses, the U.K.’s National Employment Savings Trust, a defined contribution pension fund,announced it has invested 8.5 billion pounds ($11.2 billion) domestically, as of June, and expects that figure to nearly double to 20 billion pounds by the end of the decade. More than 20% of its assets under management are currently in the U.K.

According to Nest,it is aiming to help newer U.K. businesses grow and increase local employment, and it has partnered with several companies, such as London-based renewable energy investor Octopus Energy Generation. One of the targets in which the two have invested is Deep Green, a London-based green tech company that uses the excess heat created by data centers to provide free heat to other places, such as swimming pools and recreation centers. The pension fund is also investing in British wind farms, solar farms and port operators, among other companies, according to the announcement.

“One of the world’s biggest economies is right here on our doorstep and it’s an attractive place to do business,” Nest Invest CEO Mark Fawcett said in a statement. “It allows us to support local businesses and infrastructure projects, fostering economic growth and job creation.”

To help provide further details about its domestic assets, Nest plans to publish a quarterly summary of its U.K. investments, as it does with its overall investment performance. 

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Nest added that research it conducted found that 70% of its members want more information about how the pension invests in the U.K., and 69% are interested in where their money is invested globally. 

“It’s clear from our research that pension savers want to know where their money is being invested,” Nest Interim CEO Ian Cornelius said in a statement. “We hope this step we’re taking towards further transparency encourages others in the wider pensions industry to adopt this practice.”

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Home > News > Alternatives > BlueFlame AI Tool Seeks to Aggregate Unstructured Alts Data
Alternatives

BlueFlame AI Tool Seeks to Aggregate Unstructured Alts Data

Available to BlueFlame clients, Nexus aims to organize data from many sources in a searchable database.
By Matt Toledo



Artificial intelligence startup BlueFlame AI, which provides artificial intelligence tools to asset owners and asset management firms, announced on Tuesday a new tool, Nexus, for gathering and organizing unstructured data for alternative investment managers. 

The tool aims to organize data from confidential information memorandums, presentations, vendor contracts, expert network transcripts and other documents in a searchable database. Private-market assets, the performance of which is often reported on a one-quarter lag, do not have the same amount of available data as publicly listed assets like stocks.  

“In today’s data-driven investment landscape, the ability to quickly extract valuable insights from vast amounts of unstructured information is crucial,” said Raj Bakhru, BlueFlame’s CEO, in a statement. “Nexus eliminates the need for manual data entry and offshoring efforts for market research, investor letters and board packs, legal agreements, and more.” 

Several pension funds, including the California State Teachers’ Retirement System and the Massachusetts Pension Reserve Investment Management Board, have experimented with or are looking into how AI can provide input to the investment process and improve operational processes. 

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Some funds have told CIO that while AI tools have saved hundreds of hours of work, the tools are primarily used for assisting with clerical tasks, such as transcribing meetings and taking notes.  

At a Council of Institutional Investors’ conference this month, JPMorganChase CEO Jamie Dimon cited the lack of data available in the private markets as compared to what public ones are required to disclose. 

Nexus is currently available for existing BlueFlame clients. 

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New AI Tool Aims to Assist Alternative Investment Managers 

Investment Firms’ AI Adoption Hindered by Lack of Standards, CFA Institute Finds 

How AI Can Help Asset Managers Do Their Jobs 

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