The University of London's £1.4bn pension scheme has made a series of new investments in emerging markets, persuading one US fund manager to launch a European version of its low-volatility fund, and giving a leg-up to a London boutique founded by Jacob Rees-Mogg, now a Conservative MP.

Penny Green, chief executive of the University pension fund - known as the Superannuation Arrangements of the University of London, or SAUL - said it had wanted to build a broadly-diversified emerging-markets portfolio.