CEPRES Private Markets Investment Data and Analytics Services

Nest intends to award a new, time-limited contract to CEPRES GmbH, the existing supplier of Nest's private-markets investment data and analytics platform.

Nest Invest is currently undertaking an Asset Allocation/Total Portfolio View procurement and developing the design of its future data-platform architecture. Those programmes will determine whether Nest requires a separate private-markets platform and, if so, the technical, functional and data requirements that any replacement platform will need to satisfy.

A change of supplier before those requirements are established would require Nest to select, configure and migrate to an interim private-markets platform without knowing whether that platform would be compatible with the future Asset Allocation/Total Portfolio View solution and data-platform architecture. There is also a possibility that the functionality presently provided by CEPRES will be provided through one of those future solutions, removing the need for a separate private-markets platform.

A replacement at this stage would require a procurement and migration exercise, including data migration, implementation and parallel running aligned with Nest's quarterly private-markets valuation cycle. Nest estimates that a procurement would take approximately three months and migration between six and nine months. Nest has undertaken a high-level assessment which indicates that procuring and implementing an interim replacement platform could cost in the region of £1.5 million, based on a procurement exercise, implementation and migration activity over an estimated 12‑month project period, together with associated supplier, support and legal costs. That work could become abortive if the future Asset Allocation/Total Portfolio View or data-platform solution incorporates the relevant private-markets functionality.

Nest therefore considers that replacing CEPRES during this interim period would create a material risk of obtaining services that are incompatible with Nest's emerging target architecture and would result in disproportionate technical and operational difficulties in implementation, migration, data continuity, parallel running and subsequent replacement.

The proposed contract is limited to an initial 12-month term, with an option to extend for no more than six further months. The extension would only be used where necessary to complete any replacement procurement and migration after Nest's future architecture and requirements have been confirmed.

Nest considers that these circumstances satisfy Schedule 5 paragraph 7 of the Procurement Act 2023 because the services will be supplied by the existing supplier as a time-limited continuation of the existing service, and a change of supplier during the bridging period would risk incompatible services and disproportionate technical difficulties in operation and migration.