Ciaran Mulligan, CIO of M&G Life, is our guest on the latest episode of The Professional Investment Podcast. He chose Professional Pensions’ story that insurers invest £22.8bn in UK productive assets since pledge in 2024 as his news story of the week.
Allocating to the UK must meet M&G Life’s fiduciary duty. When the right assets can be found, they not only provide the returns required but also improve the economy and society.
Ciaran explained he runs two books of business – with-profits as well as an annuity book. These can be invested in different way. The with-profits book has less stringent regulatory requirements than the life business.
M&G has long history of investing in real assets and allocates to both infrastructure and real estate. While most are fixed income investments, there are some equity assets too.
The firm’s asset management arm facilitates many of those investments, but the life business also works with third-party managers.
Ciaran talked in detail about two investments in M&G’s portfolio – Durham-based Pragmatic Semiconductor as well as Manchester’s Arndale shopping centre.
Investing in tangible assets like these is helpful in building trust with life and with-profit beneficiaries, he added.
Finally, we discussed how M&G Life invests to ensure the worst climate-change and AI predictions don’t come to fruition.
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