UK - Permal Investment Management has appointed Paul Jeffries to head up its UK institutional business.

UK - Hermes Real Estate Investment Managers Limited (HREIM) and LaSalle Investment Management have sold a £141.5m office block in the City of London to Invesco Real Estate.

AUSTRALIA - Colonial First State has awarded three mandates in alternative investments totalling A$300m for its FirstChoice Growth superannuation product.

EUROPE - J.P. Morgan Asset Management has appointed Professor Paul Sweeting as European head of the Strategic Investment Advisory Group (SIAG).

US - The California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS) generated $963m in cost savings in 2010 by increasing operational efficiency while reducing waste and redundancy, according to a staff report.

GLOBAL - Funds-of-hedge-funds managers are beginning to target smaller investors as larger institutions increasingly invest directly, research by Standard & Poor's suggests.

US - The California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS) said it is cooperating with the Fair Political Practices Commission following an investigation into gifts received by staff at the fund.

SWEDEN Pension fund provider Första AP-fonden (AP1) has appointed J.P. Morgan Worldwide Securities Services as sole provider of global custody services.

GLOBAL - Russell Investments and Axioma have launched a suite of long-only factor-based indexes for US small and large cap equities. The ten indexes aim to provide institutional investors with vehicles to manage exposure to five risk factors within portfolios....

AUSTRALIA - The median superannuation growth fund returned a nearly flat 0.2% for April, dragged down by mixed results in investment markets and the continued strength of the Australian dollar, according to research from consultancy Chant West.