The £2.5bn (€3.7bn) Marconi pension fund, which presently has a £68m deficit, is to allocate resources to a fund of hedge funds in a bid to achieve results "significantly over the gilts base".

The pension scheme, which dwarfs its sponsoring employer because the bulk of the former Marconi business was sold to Ericsson in 2005, has put 80% of its assets in bonds to safeguard benefits.