The £775m (€1.2bn) Worcestershire County Council pension fund in the UK is moving away from using two balanced fund managers and hiring a raft of specialists.

The fund is currently managed by Gartmore Investment Management and Schroder Investment Management on a balanced basis. Both managers will be invited to re-tender for any of the six specialist mandates that are up for grabs, said a spokesman for the fund. The change follows a regular review by the local authority of its fund, when it was decided that in current market conditions spreading the risk among a host of specialist managers would be the best way forward.