Europe

UK - US$15bn fund of hedge funds Blackstone Alternative Asset Management (BAAM) has appointed Gideon Berger to head up its London office and oversee the firm's interests in Europe, the Middle East and the Pacific Rim.

GLOBAL - European pension fund giants AP7, ABP and PKA have joined the Mississippi Public Employees' Retirement System (MPERS) in the US in suing Dell over alleged accounting fraud.

FRANCE/CANADA - The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Quebec (Caisse) and AXA Private Equity (AXA) have bought a majority stake in French rail and bus transport operator Keolis SA, in a deal worth €300m.

NETHERLANDS - PGGM has appointed three external members to its Audit Committee, with the appointments effective from November 22.

EUROPE - A report issued recently by Standard & Poor's (S&P) Ratings Services has claimed the transition to IFRS has had a "pronounced impact" on the balance sheets of western European banks, "through the emergence of considerable unfunded obligations"...

UK - Of the employers who currently provide defined benefit (DB) pensions, 46% do not expect to provide any staff or executives with DB pension provision within the next five years, the second Alexander Forbes Financial Services' pension confidence survey...

EUROPE - A shift towards performance fees and a more long term approach to relationships with investment managers were two key trends noted by the INVESCO European Institutional Asset Management Survey (EIAMS) 2006.

BELGIUM - Fortis Investments' assets under management (AuM) are up 10% from December 2005, totalling €116bn at the end of the third quarter.

UK - The new Companies Bill could create an "unnecessary and costly" burden on pension funds, warned Tim Currell, senior investment consultant at Watson Wyatt.

EUROPE - ABN AMRO Mellon Global Securities Services has appointed five relationship managers, to be based in the UK, Netherlands and Germany.