Massachusetts Pension Reserves Investment Management Board has become the latest US state pension fund to signal it will add more weight in alternatives investments, predicting it will put a third more into private equity next year.

The $45bn (€34.2bn) fund plans $1.5bn of further commitments to private equity and venture capital over 2007, treasurer Timothy Cahill told Reuters, and is looking to invest most of the money abroad, since most of its existing investments are with US firms.