USS pensions and thames water

[tegwin]

I wish this sort of thing had been taught in school ---trying to upskill and learn how pensions work. I have a little extra monthly cash I can make sacrifices to stash away for the future - the question is what to do with it.

I work in the university sector - enrolled on the USS pension scheme

I am aware that the USS is a shareholder of Kemble (which owns Thames water).

If it all goes down the toilet for Thames water is there potential for the returns on that USS pension to be pretty bad? IE, is it a bad place to be piling extra money? Their PR material says they have a spread risk but I get the impression their risk in kemble is sizeable.

Edited by tegwin on Tuesday 10th December 21:32

[BoRED S2upid]

You would hope someone is managing the fund and would sell or try and sell the holding if it did go tits up. But will it? I doubt it very much and how far are you away from retirement? Thames water might be in the news but don’t they historically pay their shareholders handsomely.

[PlywoodPascal]

Uss have already written their investment off/down in Thames water and the scheme still has a big surplus, 7 7 billion or something.

https://amp.theguardian.com/business/2024/jan/02/t...

Edited by PlywoodPascal on Tuesday 10th December 21:41

Edited by PlywoodPascal on Tuesday 10th December 21:42

[Countdown]

It looks like the USS has already written off (or written down) its TW investments and there appears to be a surplus on a technical provisions basis.

https://www.top1000funds.com/2024/08/uss-swings-in...

However the fact that, at one point, they had nearly $1bn in TW shares suggests they need to review their investment methodology.