Merseyside Pension Fund, one of the UK's largest public local authority pension funds, is increasing the amount that Pacific Alternative Asset Management Company manages for it in funds of hedge funds.

Paamco has been managing assets for the fund for five years and following a recent review, the officers of the fund made the decision to consolidate their fund of hedge fund investments with the California-based firm by the end of the year.
 
Merseyside also has a number of direct investments in hedge funds and in addition to its enhanced asset management role, Paamco will take responsibility for conducting regular operations reviews of these direct investments on behalf of the fund.
 
Paddy Dowdall, investment manager at Merseyside Pension Fund with responsibility for hedge fund investments, says: "We took a good look at our arrangements and have concluded that Paamco has the expertise, resources and investment skills to not only manage our fund of fund investments but also to verify and check operational procedures at the managers in our direct hedge fund portfolio." 

Stephen Oxley, managing director of Paamco's London office, says: "Merseyside is one of our longer term UK pension fund clients and we are delighted that it has chosen both to increase its allocation to Paamco and to enhance our role in overseeing the fund’s direct allocations into hedge funds. We have been able to craft a solution to their overall investment needs and look forward to working in partnership with Merseyside for many years more."