The £4.3bn (€5.4bn) Merseyside Pension Fund is searching for fund managers to look after £450m in innovative UK equities strategies, in an unusual move for the traditionally conservative public sector retirement schemes.

The UK local authority fund will divide the assets between two and five separate portfolios targeting overall returns of 3% over the FTSE All Share index net of fees, according to the tender published on the European Union's electronic database.