The largest local authority pension scheme in the UK, the Greater Manchester Pension Fund, is effectively taking a £11.2 million bet on Mothercare?s (MTC) recovery after increasing its shares in the struggling company to 5.19%.
The pension scheme, which is managed by UBS Global Asset Management, holds 8,872,362 shares in Mothercare and last increased its stake in 2014 to 3.38%.
The babywear firm?s shares fell from 188.5p on 13 April to 149p on 14 April after its international retail sales declined by 10.8% in the period up to 26 March 2016.
Mothercare is currently trading at 125.75p, which is nearly at a year low of 122.19p.
Greater Manchester Pension Fund recently sold shares in French electrical retailer Darty (DTY) for a profit, but also has holdings in RPS (RPS) and N Brown (BWNG), which are struggling.
RPS has been one of the top fallers on the London Stock Exchange as shares plummeted 17% to 176.25p, despite acquiring DBK Partners for £13 million.
The pension scheme provider also has a stake in plus-size fashion firm N Brown, which suffered a 15.1% decline in its share price year-to-date to 262.9p and has issued two profit warnings since late 2014.
