WH Smith has switched its £873m (€1.3bn) pension fund into liability-driven investments managed by State Street Global Advisors. It has terminated Barclays Global Investors, Capital International and Fidelity as managers of separate parts of the portfolio.

Alan Stewart, group finance director at WH Smith, said the fund was particularly keen on liability-driven investing because it is running a gross deficit of £94m. This has fallen over the past year from £205m.