20-20 Trustees recently negotiated the first of its kind ‘capital-backed journey plan’ with Portunes Capital Ltd represented by Aspinall Capital Partners, and their advisers PwC. The deal was completed on 30 April 2020.
Our latest webinar, hosted on 8 July from 2pm – 3pm, with our guests PwC, Aspinall Capital Partners and Gowlings, will be a discussion around how the deal came about, how it will work and what it means for the scheme.
You can find out more information about our panel below.
Duncan Willsher (Facilitator) – Trustee Director, 20-20 Trustees
Duncan has over 15 years of experience in pensions, as an investment consultant, governance consultant and Trustee. He formerly spent 14 years in senior investment consultancy positions at Willis Towers Watson. There he built a wealth of experience as lead adviser to a number of large institutional investors, advising DB and DC pension scheme Trustees, companies, multinationals, and charities. As his clients ranged in size from £25m to £5bn, his advice spanned the breadth of simple, cost-effective implementation to complex and innovative solutions. As a professional trustee, Duncan combines his investment background with his passion for improving governance, translating complexity into simple explanations and driving better outcomes through innovation, efficiency and pragmatism.
Michael O’Connor – Founder CIO, Aspinall Capital
Michael was Head of Convertible Research at Deutsche Bank from 1999 to 2003. Following his time at Deutsche, he worked as a portfolio manager across a number of asset classes at Polygon Investment Partners and GLG Partners. In 2008, Michael became a founding partner of Portman Capital Partners – in this role, he advised the UKFI and HM Treasury on alternative disposal strategies for the Government’s stakes in RBS and Lloyds built up over the financial crisis. Between 2013 and 2016, he worked as a portfolio manager for Arrowgrass Capital Partners in portfolio transactions, bank capital relief programmes and private equity transactions. At ACP Michael is currently involved in establishing a new challenger bank as well founding Portunes Capital.
Paul Carberry – Partner, Gowlings
Paul has over 20 years legal experience and helps clients to understand their obligations and requirements in operating their pensions arrangements. He advises both trustees and employers on a broad range of pension issues including funding discussions, contingent assets, benefit design issues, investment matters, liability management exercises and end-game solutions.
Jerome Melcer – Pension Innovation Lead, PwC
Jerome has a long and rich CV advising clients on managing pension risk using investment and insurance markets. He uses his deep experience with clients and markets to create practical solutions to complex challenges, always maintaining a clear focus on the needs of the client. His work includes acting as market lead on over £2bn of completed buyout transactions, as Head of Development for Skyval (PwC’s market-leading pension analytics platform) and now as PwC lead on the Capital-Backed Journey Plan proposition.
Antony Miller – Founder & Head of Strategy, 20-20 Trustees
Antony established 20-20 Trustees and took it from a standing start to one of the leading professional trustee firms in the UK. He has over thirty years’ experience in pensions as an actuary and trustee, specialising in driving efficiency, challenging the status quo and using innovative approaches to provide solutions to complex challenges. Antony is a recognised expert in relation to stressed schemes and complex restructurings, as well as formal regulatory investigations and negotiations with the Pensions Regulator. He has been parachuted in to many challenging situations, including several high profile cases, and always manages to find the best overall outcome for members and other stakeholders.