Europe

UK - Pensions will become one of the key criteria that could make or break mergers and acquisitions, Hewitt Bacon & Woodrow warns.

UK -Gartmore senior investment manager Sacha Sadan has been voted European Fund Manager of the year by the European brokerage community.

UK - Trustees may scupper the proposed £940m takeover of retail giant WHSmith unless private equity group Permira guarantees the future of the scheme.

UK - Barclays Global Investors has the largest slice of the UK institutional fund management market, research from Morgan Stanley shows.

UK - STANDARD Life has been selected as stakeholder provider for electrical retail giant Comet.

UK - Changes to the War Pensions Scheme will be blocked in the House of Lords, the Royal British Legion predicts.

EUROPE - EU states should abolish the requirement that obliges investment managers to register their UCITS in each state in which the fund is sold.

UK - A shortage of qualified pensions administrators will leave the Local Government Pension Scheme struggling to cope with legislative changes, experts warn.

UK - The £457m London Borough of Tower Hamlets has gone against the grain and retained a predominantly balanced investment management structure.

UK - Hedge fund popularity among institutional investors is rising rapidly despite the threat of greater market regulation, consultants claim.