United Kingdom

UK - Pensions & Investment Research Consultants (PIRC) has urged Marks & Spencer (M&S) to separate its chair and chief executive roles, after large institutional investors voted against the re-election of Stuart Rose to the board of directors.

UK - The £500m (US$987m) London Borough of Barnett pension fund has placed a contract for an actuarial consultant out to tender.

UK - Hermes is launching a new partnership amalgamating Hermes Focus Asset Management and Hermes Focus Asset Management Europe into a single partnership structure from January 2009.

UK/BELGIUM - Fund of hedge fund (FoHF) manager International Asset Management (IAM) has announced it has parted company with Fortis after a full management buyout.

UK - Employers need to work harder to dispel the negative press defined contribution (DC) has attracted, despite many businesses reviewing staff schemes in recent times.

UK - A Barings study has revealed 2.3 million Brits - 5% of the UK adult population - have decided to review their pension arrangements in the last 12 months, as a result of falling property prices.

UK - Aon Consulting has announced it has been appointed scheme administrator to the Milk Pension Fund, the pension fund for the UK milk industry.

UK - Active managers' poor performance has led the London Borough of Hillingdon to dramatically restructure its pension fund portfolio in favour of a passive approach.

FRANCE - The €35bn (US$54.7bn) Fonds de reserve pour le retraite (FRR, France's reserve retirement fund) has placed four mandates out to tender.

UK - Improvements to the biology of aging could affect the longevity funding issue for defined benefit (DB) schemes a panel discussion organised by Punter Southall found last week.