Europe

FRANCE - BBSP, the French market forecasting company, has appointed Frederi Maurice as its new sales director.

UK - Real estate was the best performing asset class of last year with a 6.2% rate of return, according to latest figures from performance measurer WM Company.

UK - Department store chain Allders is to close its £53.5m defined benefit (DB) pension scheme to new employees from the end of March.

EUROPE - The beginning of the year has seen the launch of two new segments on the European stock exchange, in a bid to improve the visibility of small and mid-cap companies for investors.

UK - Granada's £970m pension fund has been advised to move out of equities and into bonds by its consultant and actuary, William M Mercer, echoing the move by the Boots Pension Scheme which switched entirely to fixed income.

UK - The Birmingham-based group pensions arm of William M Mercer is to oversee the US pensions strategy of engineering company, IMI.

UK - UK institutional investors reduced their exposure to commercial real estate by £75m in the third quarter of 2001, according to new National Statistics data analysed by DTZ Research.

UK - Two shareholder meetings are worthy of note in the week starting January 14, according to corporate governance specialists Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS).

UK - Friends Ivory & Sime (FIS) has appointed Karina Litvack as its new governance and socially responsible investment (GSRI) chief, following the departure of Craig Mackenzie.

UK - The Den Norske Veritas (DNV) UK defined benefit pension fund has picked Aon as its new administrator.