UK - Unilever has appointed Kottmann Advisory as external consultant to advise its pension fund on hedge fund-of-fund investments, in a move to launch a pooled investment fund in January.

Angela Docherty, Unilever's investment consultant, announced the appointment of the Zurich-based consultant in a statement today.

Late last month the firm announced plans to launch a Luxembourg-based pooled investment fund early next year to enable its worldwide pension plans, with assets totalling €18.5 billion, to invest in hedge funds of funds.

Felix Kottmann, chief executive of Kottmann Advisory, will advise on manager selection and monitoring.

Unilever's statement today said: "Docherty would not name the firms that will manage assets for the pooled fund."

The firm also announced at the time that six boutique-size fund-of-hedge-funds managers will make up the new Univest 4 funds, initially with $400m (€304.4m) in assets to be launched in January.

According to the firm, its £4.2bn UK pension plan is set to invest up to 5% of its assets in hedge funds.

The £250m pension plan for expatriate employees is expected to follow suit, said Docherty.

Unilever launched its first pooled equity funds, Luxembourg-based as well, for its various pension plans in December last year.

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