Global

GLOBAL - Michael Hughes, CIO of Barings Asset Management, has advised institutional investors to "consider investing any spare cash" in Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America in 2007.

GLOBAL - The World Gold Council (WGC) has launched a website to provide the pensions industry with information on gold investments.

GLOBAL - Demand for low-risk long-only mandates would see a "meaningful decline" if pension funds rushed into unconstrained an absolute return investments, according to Watson Wyatt.

GLOBAL - ABN AMRO has completed the integration of its fund of hedge funds business into International Asset Management (IAM), creating an entity with US$5bn in assets under management.

GLOBAL - A significant 72% of companies believe their pension plans posed some level of financial risk to their organisations, a Mercer Human Resource Consulting survey has revealed.

GLOBAL - Goldman Sachs Asset Management has reported a record year, with net revenues increasing 45% from last year to US$4.29bn.

NETHERLANDS - Robeco has become the 22nd firm to join the Enhanced Analytics Initiative (EAI), bringing the Initiative's total assets to €1.2trn.

GLOBAL - Investment consultants lack skills in some of the niche investment areas, opening the door for investment banks and asset managers to offer "zero-fee" consulting services directly to pension funds, some industry players have claimed.

EUROPE - Estonia, Poland and Latvia were warned not to rest on their laurels just yet regarding pension expenditure since projections by the EU Commission could turn out to be less favourable than has been assumed.

GLOBAL - The merger between the Bank of New York and Mellon Financial Corporation will have a minimal impact on the firms' respective asset management divisions, with the vast majority of the 3900 planned job cuts coming from elsewhere, according to John...