Europe

UK - The £1.1bn Aberdeen City Council Pension Fund is to put £450m worth of mandates up for tender in a move to specialist investment management from balanced.

EUROPE - Interest rate rises in the US will do nothing to quell the investment potential of eastern European emerging markets, fund managers say.

UK - More than 80% of FTSE350 companies changed the composition of their boards to address independence issues in the last year, new research by Deloitte shows.

UK - The government has appointed Myra Kinghorn (pictured) as the first chief executive of the Pension Protection Fund (PPF).

UK - Pension funds should increase their property allocations to at least 20% in order to boost returns and cut risk, Morley Fund Management claims.

UK - Mercer Human Resource Consulting has been appointed to oversee the pension fund of luxury knitwear firm Johnstons of Elgin.

UK - Employee benefits - including a hardship fund, share options and Friday night "beer busts" - can reduce staff turnover significantly, The Carphone Warehouse claims.

UK - Software provider WMS has updated its Fairs package to enable IFAs to become "multi-tied agents".

UK - A $90m (£49m) hedge fund from Barclays Global Investors has attracted so much interest from investors that it launched and closed on the same day.

DENMARK - Valby-based BankPension has awarded a e6m real estate mandate to Baltic Property Trust Asset Management.