United Kingdom

UK - Pantheon Ventures has closed its fifth US private equity fund, after raising US$313m (£188.8m) from UK, European and North American schemes.

UK - Investec Asset Management has "exceeded" its expectations by winning nearly £1bn in mandates over the past year despite turbulent markets.

UK - Consultants Hymans Robertson is the victim of a massive whispering campaign by UK institutional business heads over its alleged out-of-date manager research and inadequate resources.

UK - Dow Corning Pension Plan has awarded a £32m global equity mandate to SEI Investments.

UK - Blindfolded monkeys would give schemes a better measure of returns than peer group benchmarks and indices, Hewitt Bacon & Woodrow claims.

UK - Fund managers' profitability shows no sign of improvement and is unlikely to recover in the next three years, new research shows.

UK - Friends Provident is launching a new multi-manager fund product for new corporate clients.

UK - Pension funds have welcomed Tesco's promise to look at current directors' contracts.

UK - International investment consulting firm Stamford Associates has appointed Roger Cobley as a director.

UK - The Confederation of British Industry has set up a pensions advisory group.