United Kingdom

UK - Cambridge Associates has been appointed by Nottinghamshire County Council to allocate £14m to two private equity fund of funds, yet to be decided.

UK - Financial services firms have seen business volumes plunge at their fastest rate for nine years and more job cuts could be in the offing, according to a new study.

UK - Morley Fund Management has joined a host of other commentators predicting strong growth for the UK market this year despite a US downturn.

UK - Real estate was the best performing asset class of last year with a 6.2% rate of return, according to latest figures from performance measurer WM Company.

UK - Department store chain Allders is to close its £53.5m defined benefit (DB) pension scheme to new employees from the end of March.

UK - Granada's £970m pension fund has been advised to move out of equities and into bonds by its consultant and actuary, William M Mercer, echoing the move by the Boots Pension Scheme which switched entirely to fixed income.

UK - The Birmingham-based group pensions arm of William M Mercer is to oversee the US pensions strategy of engineering company, IMI.

UK - UK institutional investors reduced their exposure to commercial real estate by £75m in the third quarter of 2001, according to new National Statistics data analysed by DTZ Research.

UK - Two shareholder meetings are worthy of note in the week starting January 14, according to corporate governance specialists Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS).

UK - Friends Ivory & Sime (FIS) has appointed Karina Litvack as its new governance and socially responsible investment (GSRI) chief, following the departure of Craig Mackenzie.