The pension fund of UK local authority Shropshire County Council has taken its first steps into the private equity asset class, with a £20m (€31m) investment in funds from HarbourVest, the global fund-of-funds specialist.

Phil Guy, treasury and pensions manager at Shropshire, said the decision to invest in private equity resulted from its actuarial valuation asset liability study conducted by Frank Russell at the end of last year.