Europe

Proposed European Union plans to make scheme funding rules uniform across member states could force UK firms to pay off deficits faster, Towers Watson warns.

EUROPE - APG and Australian property firm Goodman have joined forces as part of a consortium making a €1.2bn ($1.7bn) bid for ProLogis European Properties.

UK - Unilever is to close its £5.5bn ($9bn) UK final salary scheme to existing members due to the fund's "increasingly unaffordable and unsustainable" costs.

Kentucky Retirement System, Mercer, PensionsFirst, Towers Watson, Northern Trust, J.P. Morgan

UK - Pension trustee boards continue to struggle to make swift changes in allocations to new asset classes, research by Aon Hewitt shows.

UK - The National Employment Savings Trust has appointed F&C Asset Management and HSBC Global Asset Management to manage its ethical and Sharia funds, respectively, it announced today.

EUROPE - KAS Bank has developed an app for the iPad which enables pension fund managers, trustees, sponsors and fund administrators to access up-to-date fund data at any time and from any location.

NORWAY - Norway's Government Pension Fund Global should reduce its weighting to Europe and will consider changes to its fixed income portfolio, finance minister Sigbjorn Johnsen said in a report to parliament today.

UK - Scheme sponsors are likely to follow BT and bring forward contribution dates before the 2% reduction in corporation tax rate kicks in, experts believe.

EUROPE - Jean Claude Trichet, the president of the European Central Bank, has defended yesterday's 25 basis point hike in interest rates as good for the eurozone, as EU leaders prepare for talks on the bailout of Portugal.