UK - The £2.5bn (€3.7bn) Hampshire County Council Pension Fund has renewed its contract with UK-based multi-manager Bramdean Asset Management in a push for alternatives, IPE has learnt today.

In an official tender, the fund announced last October it was looking for advice on alternatives following an overhaul of its management structure from multi-asset to specialist mandates.

However, Bramdean, headed by ‘Superwoman' Nicola Horlick, was already on a permanent contract for a year. That contract runs out at the end of this month, a spokesman told IPE.

"We ran the tender process while they were imposed on a temporary basis, and they have now got it on a five-year plus five basis," he added.

The scheme began allocating to alternatives, through private equity and infrastructure funds, about a year ago, though the alternatives portfolio has not reached the total £270m the fund wants to allocate to alternative investments within the next few years.

"The decision to invest in alternative investments was part of an overall assessment of the investment returns required by the Fund to meet its long term liabilities.  The proposed allocation to alternative investments will contribute to those investment returns whilst helping to diversify risks," a spokeswoman for the fund told IPE in October.

She also said the money for the allocation would come from the fund's "positive cashflow" from contributions and investment income.

Bramdean announced plans last month to launch a fund of funds, investing in globally-diversified private equity, hedge funds and specialty asset classes.

The fund will have a London-listed IPO in July and, perhaps more importantly, is said to have been created following a year's analysis of return dilution, to ensure the fund does not suffer where it holds assets committed to private equity but are not yet "called".

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