AUSTRALIA - Global asset managers are targeting the lucrative Australian market with Janus Intech planning a new office in Sydney, Global Pensions can exclusively reveal.

ASSETS under management in funds of funds rose by £2bn during the final quarter of 2006, latest Investment Management Association figures reveal.

NOBLE Asset Management has launched a new hedge fund for institutional investors.

NETHERLANDS - Dutch pension fund giant ABP is on the brink of a structural overhaul that could see the €209bn fund strengthen the focus on its third pillar pension offering and potentially create more new products in-house.

CANADA - The furore surrounding public sector pensions has escalated after the nation's largest trade union body threatened a campaign against the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) over its criticism of pension costs.

FUND managers from Schroders, MM Asset Management and HSBC Halbis Partners have teamed up to found new asset management firm FOUR Capital Partners.

UK - Royal Mail is to close its final salary scheme to new employees, following consultation, and has unveiled plans to fund its £6.6bn pension deficit over 17 years.

UK - Actuarial consultant Lane Clark and Peacock (LCP) is looking to develop a packaged service for pension funds which would transfer all management responsibilities from the trustee board to the consultancy.

Pensions move ‘irrational and unlawful'; GMB threatens strike over BA pensions dispute; Legal & General buys Nationwide life business; Nationwide bails out of bancassurance

TRUSTEES of the British Airways pension scheme have signed documentation which will put into effect the New Airways Pension Scheme deficit funding plan.