The Church of England, one of the UK's largest single investors in hedge funds, is pulling money from large long/short equity managers following a run of lacklustre returns, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

The decision follows high-profile losses at some of the most established equity hedge funds over the last two years. Crispin Odey’s Odey Asset Management has seen assets under management more than halve since early 2015 to $5.5bn, while assets at Alan Howard’s Brevan Howard have dropped from a peak of $42bn to $13bn this year.