United Kingdom

UK - Employers should look to reduce contributions to final salary plans as a cheaper alternative to winding up schemes, a leading lawyer claims.

UK - Arbuthnot Pension Trustees has revealed that a group of its clients has acquired a £6m shopping centre in Cambridgeshire.

UK - Council finance chiefs are "thinking the unthinkable" and pushing the government to raise pension contributions for existing local authority staff, consultant Hymans Robertson claims.

UK - Sainsbury's has said that its chief executive, Sir Peter Davis, will become the company chairman in the lead up to a possible bid for supermarket rival Safeway.

US/UK - A decision by the California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS) to adopt a performance disclosure policy for its private equity investments could prove "highly misleading", according to one expert.

UK - An internet-based pensions law firm is being launched by John Quarrell, the former head of pensions at Nabarro Nathanson.

UK - Corporate governance report author Derek Higgs has bowed to pressure from firms to amend his code.

UK - Pension schemes are bracing themselves for increased administration costs in the wake of proposed tax reforms.

UK - Engineering firm Smiths Group has ended its contribution holiday after an FRS17 valuation of its £2.5bn pension fund revealed a £150m deficit.

UK - Threadneedle Investments has added a fixed income hedge fund to its Crescendo product line-up.