Leicestershire County Council pension fund has become the first local authority scheme to liquidate its bond holdings. The fund will instead increase its allocation to strategies which promise to provide a consistently higher target return and plans to appoint at least two managers.

According to Colin Pratt, investment manager at the fund, the £1.2bn (€1.5bn) scheme took the decision to move out of bonds in January as return prospects were no longer attractive. He said the fund's 15% allocation to bonds does not provide it with a significant liability match.