UK – The 2.2 billion pound (3.2 billion euro) Hertfordshire County Council Superannuation Fund has made a 55 million-pound (79.8 million-euro) move into private equity.

David Currie, managing director of Standard Life Investments (Private Equity) Ltd., said the fund had split the cash between Standard Life and US-owned private equity firm HarborVest. The fund did not want to disclose how the cash was allocated between the two managers, he said.

“We got European private equity,” he said, adding that HarborVest took US private equity.

Currie said the investment is in Standard Life’s European Strategic Partners II fund, which just had its third close at 892 million euros. He added the fund, whose main focus is European buyout funds, is on its way to one million euros.

He said Hertfordshire had looked at private equity to diversify and because of its potential for incremental improvement to performance.

“They went through a very formal selection process,” he added. Standard Life Investments is the fund management arm of insurer Standard Life.