West Sussex to place £40m private equity portfolio

The West Sussex County Council pension fund is seeking expressions of interest for a £40m private equity portfolio.

The £860m fund is looking to invest the money through a fund-of-funds approach and may appoint more than one manager. The mandate will represent around a 4.5 per cent exposure to private equity as an asset class. Local government funds are currently restricted to a maximum 5 per cent under the 'prudent limits' set by the UK Department of Transport. There has recently been a consultation exercise over whether to revise these limits but the DTLR's response has not been publicised as yet.

The has been a renewed burst of interest in private equity investment recently with West Yorkshire only this week announcing it had appointed Murray Johnstone Private Equity to manage a new segregated £15m private equity fund. But a survey by ii-Q.com across the LGPS earlier this year found that on average local government funds' exposure to private equity was less than 0.5 per cent.

Source: ii-q.com