Current Account noticed an interesting disclosure to the Stock Exchange a couple of weeks ago where the Arnotts Staff Pension Fund bought 250,000 shares in Arnotts itself, taking the pension fund's stake in the company up to 12.57 per cent.

That means that, at current prices, £13 million (€16.5 million) of the fund's assets are tied up in Arnotts itself.

Now, there is nothing wrong with what the Arnotts Staff Pension Fund has done, and it is arguable that the pension fund has taken a smart investment decision by having such a large stake in a company which now has Dublin's biggest city-centre store as well as property that is carried in its books at below current market value.

But the move by the Arnotts Staff Pension Fund does raise some interesting points.

For a start, it is unusual for a staff pension fund to be self-invested to such a degree and some years ago the Irish Life Pension Fund sold off a load of Irish Life shares to bring itself down to 5 per cent of the plc's total equity.

A pension fund is free to self-invest to whatever level it likes, but when it comes to calculating the pension's fund assets for the purpose of meeting the Pension Board's funding standards, the maximum self-investment that can be taken into account is 5 per cent. That means, when assessing the pension fund's ability to meet its liabilities, only £5.3 million of the Arnotts Staff Pension Fund's stake in Arnotts can be taken into account.