08:00
Registration and coffee
08:50
Chair’s opening remarks
Robert Leeming, News Editor, Insurance Asset Risk
9:00
Macro-economic and geopolitical outlook and the implications for real asset investments
- The Trump administration and implications for investments in real assets: How might public spending change? What could be the impact of trade tariffs? Will the US economy continue to over-perform compared to Europe?
- In the meantime, in the more sluggish European economy, will inflation linger and continue to be sticky? Will this divergence between US and European economies grow?
- Discussing the investment landscape in the UK under the labour government
- Examining the Chinese economy – how has it weathered its real estate crisis, and can it get back on its growth path?
- Discussing political instability in Russia, Ukraine and the Middle East and what this means for investment and risk management strategies
- What are the expectations for interest rates, and the potential implications for liquidity risk appetite and real asset investment strategies?
- Discussing the potential outlook for the rest of 2025 and beyond
Corrado Pistarino, Chief Investment Officer, Foresters Friendly Society
Thomas Fiedler, Head of Section, Investment Steering ERGO International Mandates, ERGO Group AG
09:45
Public versus private assets in the current interest rate environment
- Comparing the benefits of the private markets versus equity markets when investing in real assets
- Examining the risks and concerns associated with private markets/equity markets
- How are the current interest rates impacting public versus private allocations?
- Looking ahead, how could a falling interest rate change allocations to real assets, in public and private markets?
Erik Vynckier, Board Member, Foresters Friendly Society
Frank Mühleck, Senior Consultant, Munich Re
Sumit Mehta, Head of Strategy, Institutional Retirement, Legal & General
10:30
Coffee
11:00
Update on UK Solvency II reform - to what extent have changes to the MA rules unlocked investment opportunities in real assets?
- Update on the implementation of the Matching Adjustment (MA) reforms - to what extent have they achieved their goal of increasing flexibility and competitiveness? Did the reforms go far enough?
- How have the reforms impacted insurers' investment strategies, in particular with relation to real assets?
- Are insurers modelling new asset classes for the MA investment portfolio? If so, which of these are attractive from the real assets space?
- How useful is the introduction of highly predictable cash flows to tap in new assets?
- Looking ahead, what other reforms could be envisaged to enable investments in real assets, within and outside the UK?
Michael Henderson, Solvency II Reform Lead, Legal & General Group
11:45
Real estate debt: identifying the hot spots, growth areas and outlook for real estate
• Reviewing global trends impacting the real estate sector, and macro factors influencing pricing and valuation in different markets/regions
• How will the inflationary environment in interest rates movements impact borrowers, and as a result, lenders?
• Exploring relative value dynamics across geographies and sub-asset classes of real estate debt
• Examining the challenges of getting access to deal flow and origination of attractive, high quality real estate assets
Adam Alari, Investment Oversight Manager - Real Assets, Royal London
Jack Gay, Head of Real Estate Debt, Nuveen
Mark Wood, Head of Credit, Aviva UK
12:30
Lunch
13:30
How are net-zero pledges translated into insurers' real estate investment decisions?
- Examining the current role of real estate investments in net-zero transition strategies and how this might evolve
- Discussing the role of climate risk in property valuations – to what extent should these risks be priced into values
- Considerations and challenges when developing a green real estate portfolio
- The impact of regulation, policies and government spending: what changes could help channel insurers' capital towards green real estate projects and enhance yield?
Marieke van Kamp, Head of Private Markets, NN Group
Sindhu Krishna, previously Chief Sustainable Investment Officer, Phoenix Group
14:15
Infrastructure – a resilient asset class? Investment trends and outlook
- Reviewing the current state of the infrastructure sector and sectors which have recently caused concern, such as water utilities in the UK
- Discussing infrastructure debt versus equity, public versus private capital, and PPPs
- In the current climate of tight government budgets for public spending, to what extent can the private sector bolster the sector?
- Discussing the outlook for the different infrastructure sectors:
- Transport: rail, road and ports
- Energy: navigating high energy costs
- Renewables: sourcing investable deals, navigating pricing challenges and market risk
- Digital infrastructure
- How are infrastructure investments being used in net-zero transition strategies?
- Infrastructure investments in emerging markets – risks and opportunities
Greg Scott, Investment Manager, Phoenix Group
Jonathan Syson, Senior Director of Loan Investments, Scottish Widows
Peter Jeranyama, Infrastructure Debt Origination Manager, Pension Insurance Corporation
14:55
Closing remarks
15:00
Coffee and networking