Europe

UK - US companies that provide property/casualty insurance will provide a lucrative investment opportunity for institutional investors, Hiscox Investment Management predicts.

UK - Hedge funds - as measured by the MSCI Hedge Fund Composite Index - returned -0.6% at the end of May, lagging behind bond and equity returns.

UK - Improved training, communication and management policies can cut the "significant" costs to business of sickness absence, employee benefit specialist John Scott & Partners claims.

UK - Citigroup Asset Management is launching a fixed income investment fund aimed at UK pension schemes.

UK - Pensioners have hit out at the government for refusing to increase the required number of member-nominated trustees on scheme boards.

UK - Property manager Healey & Baker Investment Managers has returned 14.4% for the year to March 2004, ahead of the IPD Index which returned 13%.

UK - Midas Capital Partners' corporate pension fund has returned 39.5% for the year to March 31, outperforming the WM 2000 index by 16.2 percentage points.

UK - The Local Government Pension Scheme must evolve to meet the "critical" challenges ahead, a minister at the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister told delegates.

UK - Insight Investment has acquired the £155m McKenzie commercial property portfolio from Glasgow-based Kintyre Properties.

UK - Occupational pension payments should be more flexible to fit in with the needs of retired workers, software provider CTC claims.