JUST RETIREMENT is set to float on the Alternative Investment Market in a bid to raise £50m to fund future growth and expand distribution capability.

MERCER HUMAN Resource Consulting has appointed Will Carpenter as a senior associate within its retirement business.

Pensions warning for Sea Containers; Pension funds aim to switch holdings; Top Whitehall pensions worth £1.7m; PAG protests

EUROPE - BlackRock has launched the Merrill Lynch (ML) European Property Fund of Funds, which will invest in unlisted diversified property vehicles across Europe.

US - Pyramis Global Advisors risks losing an international equity mandate worth US$1bn from the Illinois Teachers' Retirement System (TRS) after it was placed on the fund's watch list for organisational reasons.

IRELAND - Over two thirds of defined benefit plans in Ireland fail to meet long term fully funded status, a Mercer Investment Consulting survey has found.

AUSTRALIA - The Australian superannuation legislation will be changed to allow funds to continue to invest in 'instalment warrants' although the instrument is currently disallowed by the Superannuation Industry Supervision Act 1993.

GLOBAL - Institutional property investors are being pushed into new markets as far abroad as Asia and Africa as demand far outstrips supply in traditional property markets, F&C has claimed.

STANDARD Life Investments is mulling the launch of an Asian property business to capitalise on schemes' insatiable demand for the asset class, PP has learned.

SWITZERLAND - Swiss pension funds failed to make most of the booming stock market in the third quarter of 2006 and only increased their equity exposure by 0.62% over the period.