F&C ups PE exposure

Foreign & Colonial Investment Trust plc has increased its private equity allocation to an annual commitment of £75m per annum with the aim of reaching a minimum exposure of 10% between 2009 and 2013. As a first step in this process, an additional US$50m and US$25m (£27m and £13.5m at 30 June, 2006 exchange rates) has been committed respectively to funds managed by Pantheon and HarbourVest investing principally in Asia.

In 2002, the group committed US$120m and €115m respectively to fund-of-funds managed by HarbourVest and Pantheon and at the end of 2005 committed a further US$69m to Dover Street VI, a specialist secondary fund also managed by HarbourVest. The group originally targeted its initial commitment to account for about 5% of total assets when fully invested in 2008, but decided that unless further commitments to private equity were made, the proportion invested in this area would fall after 2008 as cash is returned from successful investments.