Europe

UK - Tax-relief restrictions should be scrapped and the government must issue more long-dated and index-linked gilts, the National Association of Pension Funds said.

SWEDEN/NORWAY - Swedish company Skanska Infrastructure Development has sold its 50% stake in a Norwegian road operated as a public private partnership to its two parent company pension funds for SEK170m (US$23.5m).

EUROPE - A third of multi-national companies operating in Europe are set to implement pan-European pension arrangements by 2015, Hewitt Associates has forecast.

EUROPE - The European Commission is set to publish a green paper on an EU framework for pensions.

EUROPE - The Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee of the European Parliament (EP) started their scrutiny of the latest draft of the Alternative Investment Fund Managers (AIFM) directive focusing on the exemption of pension funds and other entities....

UK - Babcock International Group has chosen Friends Provident to administer a single defined contribution pension scheme for employees without access to its existing defined benefit schemes.

NETHERLANDS - UK investors Hermes and the Universities Superannuation Scheme have filed a request with the Enterprise Chamber of the Amsterdam Court of Appeals for an investigation over Canon's tender offer worth €730m (US$990.5m) to buy Océ, the biggest...

UK - The Conservatives will aim to restore the health of occupational pensions, shadow work and pensions secretary Theresa May said.

GLOBAL - Global pension assets totalled US$29.5trn at year end 2009, up 14% from the previous year, according to a report by the International Financial Services London.

UK - Mercer has launched a pension buyout index in anticipation of escalating demand for de-risking products this year.