Fulcrum Asset Management’s LTAF, which launched this spring with investments from the HSBC Pension Scheme, has added a new timber manager to its range of illiquid specialists.
The LTAF will now offer HSBC access to products provided by Domain Timber Advisors, a subsidiary of the US alternative asset manager Domain Capital Group. As part of the collaboration, the pension fund will have access to an evergreen investment structure, offering exposure to US forestland.
The recent timber allocation adds to the fund’s existing private market offering, which already includes private equity (including venture capital), value-add real estate, value-add infrastructure, natural resources, and private credit, Fulcrum stated.
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HSBC Pensions announced in March that it had partnered with Fulcrum to create a multi-asset private market fund. Russell Picot, chair of the HSBC Bank (UK) Pension Scheme Trustee Board, commented on HSBC's investment in the LTAF back in March: "Improving expected member outcomes by targeting better risk adjusted returns through diversifying the assets in which members’ savings are invested have been at the heart of the HSBC Scheme. I’m delighted for our Scheme to take this step for our DC members and to drive positive change within the pensions industry."
HSBC Pensions manages £28bn of Defined Benefit assets and a further £7bn of Defined Contribution assets, split across three separate sections. It did not disclose the amount it has committed.
While the initial LTAF is bespoke to HSBC, Fulcrum intends to launch a commingled version of the fund later this year, subject to regulatory approval.
LTAFs (Long-Term Asset Funds) are new fund structures launched in the UK to enable defined contribution funds to invest in long-term private market assets such as infrastructure or private equity, which are traditionally underrepresented in DC portfolios due to regulatory restrictions.
