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

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.”