Global

GLOBAL - Credit Suisse Group saw operating profits take a 45% stoop in 2001, stressing that revenues looked likely to slide during 2002 and job losses set to rise.

GLOBAL - Liberty Ermitage the international fund group with $2.2bn under management, has been appointed as investment advisor to a new hedge fund of funds launched by Standard Bank.

GLOBAL - Credit Suisse Group has hit out at speculation over its role in the collapse of energy giant Enron, in a bid to skirt around potential legal action, some of it from US pension funds.

GLOBAL - Deutsche Bank's $440m acquisition of real estate investment manager, RREEF, will boost its distribution and alternatives network but falls short of nudging Australian giant Lend Lease off top spot.

GLOBAL - Deutsche Bank has merged its worldwide property management companies into a single firm.

GLOBAL - The controversial accounting rules FRS17 and its international counterpart IAS19 should be scrapped as they do not "make any sense", according to Francis Ghiloni, head of sales and marketing at Britannic Asset Management.

RUSSIA - ING Bank (Eurasia) is to boost its assets in custody by $2bn in Russia with the acquisition of Credit Suisse First Boston's custody unit, as CSFB looks to focus on its core businesses.

UK/GLOBAL - BlueBay Asset Management has launched a $150m hedge fund this week - its first product after the company was set up last year.

GLOBAL - Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) is backing the $25bn merger between computer giants Hewlett-Packard (HP) and Compaq, a decision dissident shareholder Walter Hewitt claims will "destroy stockholder value".

GLOBAL - New York-headquartered BISYS has bagged a mandate from Paris-based ABF Capital Management to provide fund services to a recently launched ‘green' fund.