Europe

EUROPE - F&C Management, the pan-European fund management house, is looking to launch three new hedge funds targeting institutional investors in the first instance.

UK - Friends Ivory & Sime has reorganised its UK equities fund management businesses into into three core areas - large companies, medium companies and smaller companies.

UK - Struggling Scottish textiles firm Richards has placed itself into receivership, claiming that the minimum funding requirement (MFR) played a major role in its demise.

UK - The London Borough of Hackney Superannuation Fund is set to conduct an asset liability study.

UK - Alternative investment manager Man Investment Products is set to introduce its latest capital guaranteed structured product, targeting institutional and high net worth investors.

EUROPE - The Isle of Man is challenging Luxembourg as an international pensions centre with the launch of its new pensions regime.

UK - Security staff at Manchester City Airport are to initiate industrial action on February 4 in protest at plans to cut pension and pay entitlement and make 140 staff redundant.

UK - BAA, the firm that owns and manages UK airport operations, is looking to complete its asset liability study (ALS) by the start of the third quarter.

UK - HSBC's global custody division, has picked up its first customer for its recently launched transaction cost measurement service (TCMS) - the £5.4bn West Midlands Pension Fund.

UK - New government rebates for contracting out of the state second pension will cause a mass exodus out of private pension provision, driving as many as 3m people back into the state system, William M Mercer has warned.