The Tyne and Wear Pension Fund has approved a further £200m commitment to the Border to Coast Climate Opportunities portfolio.

This is in addition to its launch commitment of £465m, resulting in a total commitment of £665m over the past two years. The Climate Opportunities portfolio targets investments that seek to have a positive impact on climate change and support global ambitions to reach net zero by 2050. Targeted investments include renewable energy generation, battery storage and electric vehicles, alongside sustainable food production, carbon capture and storage, forestry, and projects to improve the resilience of electricity grids. The Tyne and Wear Pension Fund is targeting net zero by 2050.

M&G Investments has announced the first close of its latest real estate debt funds, including £350m of capital from four clients.

The funds reached a first close with a £200m investment from LGPS Central Limited, £100m from the Prudential With Profits Fund, and £25m from “one of the UK’s largest insurers”. M&G will look to raise further capital for these funds and segregated mandates over the next 18 months from global institutional investors. The capital from the latest funds close will be deployed into real estate loans across Europe, originated by M&G’s real estate finance team.

Women who do not have children are likely to have an extra £11,315 in their pension pot at the end of their working life compared to those who do not have kids, research from Raisin UK has found.

Its analysis showed that a woman with no children is likely to accrue a pension of £109,031, compared to £97,716 for women who do not have children. Raisin UK said the primary reason behind the difference was that many women cannot return to work full time after having children due to several factors, including high childcare costs. It found that 73 per cent of mothers return to work in their first year after having children, while 90 per cent of men retain full-time employment in the first 10 years of parenthood.

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