Investment

Investors in Australia, the UK and Sweden ranked highest in a new "Environmental Real Estate Index" developed on the back of a global environmental survey commissioned by three large European pension funds.

A group of investors led by Hermes has forced Infineon's designated chairman Klaus Wucherer to promise to step down after only one year instead of five if elected to head the chipmaker's supervisory board.

Two US investment management firms have decided to launch target date funds in an assault on the UK DC market, Professional Pensions has learned.

Xafinity has been bought by Advent International from Duke Street for an undisclosed sum.

GLOBAL - Worldwide investment fund assets increased 6.2% in the third quarter of 2009, reaching €15.3trn (US$21.5trn) at the end of September 2009, latest figures from the European Fund and Asset Management Association (EFAMA) have revealed.

ITALY - Italian pensions watchdog Commissione di Vigilanza sui Fondi Pensione (Covip) has called for a "modernisation" of the rules regulating the investments pension funds are allowed to make.

GLOBAL - BlackRock's net new business totalled US$82bn in the fourth quarter of 2009, with pension funds and other institutional investors accounting for 60% of it.

The Pensions Advisory Service is in danger of being "dumped or carved up" as a result of government funding problems, Richard Stroud warns.

People retiring at 65 will need to live a minimum of 17 years to get back the money have saved in their pension fund due to today's low annuity rates, Rockingham Retirement says.

GLOBAL - Nissan Motors has appointed Mercer as global retirement consultant in a bid to strengthen its pensions governance structures.