Railpen

Railpen

Financial Services

City of London, London 10,896 followers

Railpen is trusted with the administration, safekeeping and investment of over £34bn on behalf of the scheme’s members.

About us

The Railways Pension Scheme is one of the UK’s largest and longest established pension funds. Railpen is responsible for the safekeeping and investment of around £34 billion on behalf of the scheme’s 350,000 members who are connected to the railway industry. Railpen's purpose is to secure our members' future. To achieve this we invest the scheme’s assets to generate strong returns over the long term. Our members and their employers trust us with this very significant responsibility. We are proud of this responsibility, take it very seriously, and are committed to, and passionate about, improving their future lives. Generating the required returns is challenging. To be successful we must constantly strive to be considered a world-class asset owner by our stakeholders, with a proven track record of adding value for our members. This means we have to have excellent people, doing exemplary work, in every part of our business. We use the size of our assets to invest wisely and influentially. Our convictions and a clear set of investment beliefs guide us through complex and changing markets. We’re not afraid to think innovatively or act boldly in the best interests of the members we are proud to serve.

Website
https://www.railpen.com/
Industry
Financial Services
Company size
501-1,000 employees
Headquarters
City of London, London
Type
Privately Held

Locations

  • Primary

    7th Floor, 100 Liverpool Street

    City of London, London EC2M 2AT, GB

    Get directions

Employees at Railpen

Updates

  • Workforce treatment is the number one sustainable ownership issue for our members. So, we’ve looked at areas like how companies include the voice and perspective of their workforce at the highest levels and set up a coalition that speaks to companies about the best ways to ensure workers are being heard. Hear from Caroline Escott about Railpen’s work on workforce issues – watch our video at https://ow.ly/qfx950U5eeF #WorkerVoice #EmployeeVoice

    • Image shows Railpen's Caroline Escott.
  • View organization page for Railpen, graphic

    10,896 followers

    Each year we update and publish our Global Voting Policy, which highlights our stewardship priorities for the year ahead and articulates how we will vote at portfolio companies where our expectations are not met. This year, we’ve: - Strengthened our lines on votes around Related Party Transactions (RPTs) and significant transactions, as well as on re-incorporation in different domiciles, to encourage portfolio companies to improve their corporate governance and protect important shareholder rights at a time when policymakers in the UK and elsewhere are rolling back corporate governance standards. - Expanded our voting approach to auditor liability and indemnification, in line with our commitment to do so in our October ‘Acting on Audit’ report. - Formalised our thinking on emerging ESG issues including plastics and anti-microbial resistance (AMRs). We will be engaging with our portfolio companies and, where we use them, our external managers on the new lines in our Policy – as well as using it to help guide how we will vote either to support or sanction the companies we invest in during the 2025 AGM Season and beyond. Caroline Escott, Senior Investment Manager, Sustainable Ownership, comments: “As an active investor, we rely on portfolio companies’ financial accounts to represent a true and fair view of their financial health, which is why we are setting higher expectations for the audit profession and Audit Committees in 2025. “This complements our ongoing stewardship work to protect high corporate governance standards: both are underpinned by our motivation to create sustainable financial value for members. In 2025, on audit, shareholder protections, and elsewhere, we will encourage companies to resist the ‘race to the bottom’ on corporate governance, exercising our vote accordingly.” Read our 2025 Voting Policy: https://ow.ly/qlf850UocJm Take a look at our Acting on Audit report: https://ow.ly/N0sn50Uogao #GlobalVotingPolicy #CorporateGovernance #ShareholderRights #SustainableOwnership #VotingPolicy #AGM2025

    • Image shows Caroline Escott, Senior Investment Manager, quotes as follows: "In 2025, on audit, shareholder protections, and elsewhere, we will encourage companies to resist the ‘race to the bottom’ on corporate governance, exercising our vote accordingly.”
  • In 2023, we prioritised four ESG themes. Our third is the climate transition, which is about how we move as a society with high greenhouse gas emissions, to a future of net-zero emissions and where we're much more resilient to our new environment. Hear more from our Senior Investment Manager, Adam Gillett, including how we've engaged with our portfolio companies. Watch our short video at https://ow.ly/Y7Rg50U5cNf #ESG #ClimateTransition #NetZero #ResilientFuture #SustainableInvesting

    • Image show Railpen's Adam Gillett.
  • View organization page for Railpen, graphic

    10,896 followers

    “Railpen has clear and ambitious targets on climate, a robust screening framework and outstanding measures in its ESG investment policy.” (Judges comments) We’ve won the award for 'ESG Strategy' at this year’s Investment & Pensions Europe (IPE) European Pension Fund Awards – collected by Railpen's Olivia Webb and Paul T.. Now in their 24th year, these awards recognise excellence and innovation, high achievers and trailblazers across European pensions. Railpen was one of over 380 entries at this year’s awards. So we’re incredibly proud to have been selected as a winner in the category of ESG Strategy, as well as being highly commended across the following three categories: 'Carbon and Net Zero Strategies', 'Stewardship & Engagement' and 'Alternatives'. Michael Marshall, Director of Investment Risk and Sustainable Ownership at Railpen, said: "Our Sustainable Ownership activities are core to our work to secure our members' futures on behalf of the Trustee. By incorporating and acting upon the environmental, social and governance issues which matter most to good financial outcomes for members, we can help protect and enhance the value of members' savings. “I am delighted that our work has been recognised by the IPE judges, including our proactive approach to managing climate risks and opportunities, our keen focus on influencing on the most material system-wide issues, and our use of all the tools in the stewardship toolkit to help us achieve real change in the world we live in." You can read more about Railpen’s awards in 2024 on our website at https://ow.ly/KcEf50UluBm Or for more on our award-winning approach to investing… https://ow.ly/cUqR50UluBk Caroline Escott Adam Gillett David Vyravipillai Sophie Harris Thomas Ward Shane McCullagh, CFA Jasmine Porter Craig Heron #ESGStrategy #IPEAwards

    • Image shows Olivia Webb and Paul Tan of Railpen collecting our award for ESG Strategy at the 2024 IPE European Pension Awards.
  • Railpen has received a 2024 Fast Payer Award from Good Business Pays in recognition of our payment terms to suppliers. Good Business Pays, supported the UK Department of Business & Trade, was set up to encourage the UK’s largest companies to fast-track payments to small suppliers. Each year, they publish a list of the fastest (and slowest) paying companies across industry sectors. This year, Railpen has been named in the top 5% fastest paying companies. Many suppliers rely upon stable, predictable payments streams for their ongoing viability. At Railpen, we pride ourselves on good payment practices – from the point at which our procurement team on-boards a new supplier to the work our finance colleagues do to ensure invoices are paid on time (if not, earlier) This is reflected in our statutory payment practices reporting. In our 2024 Voting Policy, Railpen outlined sanctions for UK companies that have continuously paid their suppliers late or have a long-standing record of outstanding payments – we were one of the first investors in the world to do so. This is in recognition of the growing body of evidence that demonstrates the financial materiality of a company’s treatment of its suppliers, which can increase a company’s operating costs over the medium-term and damage goodwill amongst both suppliers and customers. Find out more in our 2024 Voting Policy at https://ow.ly/b9me50U6Mwo #FastPayerAward #GoodBusinessPays

    • Images shows the Good Business Pay award which reads: Fast Payer Award 2024 Accredited.
  • Railpen has invested £2.6bn in UK property, providing spaces for people, businesses and also nature. As well as creating state-of-the-art, sustainable, high-quality buildings that help improve communities and boost local communities, we want to create places where nature can thrive and be enjoyed. Take our developments in Cambridge where we’re using intelligent façade to reduce energy consumption by 70% as well as boosting diversity with features like parks, edible gardens and bat boxes. What are you doing to support biodiversity across your investments? Watch our video and let us know in the comments: https://ow.ly/jnmI50UkgKW #SustainableInvesting #Biodiversity #SustainableBuildings #UKProperty #EnergyEfficiency

    • Image reads: We have invested £2.6bn in UK property

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