The £7.5bn (€11bn) West Midlands Pension Fund has continued to diversify its portfolio with the addition of alternative asset classes, Saunders said at the Financial News European Pensions and Savings Summit in Barcelona last week.

Goldman Sachs Asset Management has been awarded a commodities and an infrastructure portfolio, and other infrastructure briefs have been handed to ABN Amro, Barclays Capital, Innisfree and Henderson Private Capital, said Saunders.