Global

BT has entered a joint-venture made up of property groups Land Securities Trillium and William Pears to sell off its £2bn property portfolio.

Gartmore Investment Management and Villanova Capital have appointed Peter Chambers as global chief investment officer of their newly combined investment divisions.

Vienna-based APK Pensionskasse has appointed US index fund manager Vanguard to oversee a US$33m (EUR35m) equities brief.

Analysis of merger and acquisition activity by Thomson Financial for the first quarter of 2001 confirms a marked slowdown in its deal-making worldwide.

Pensions administration consultancy Edis Partnerships has purchased software house SpaPlan for an undisclosed sum.

The Pensions Investments Research Consultants has backed calls urging institutional shareholders to vote in favour of a Greenpeace resolution which is putting pressure on energy giant BP Amoco to report on its business strategy in response to climate...

Escher UK Asset Management has launched a trust-based stakeholder supervised by independent trustee Capital Cranfield Trustees.

Merrill Lynch Investment Managers has launched a series of eight global sector funds aimed at worldwide institutional investors.

Celexa - the European real estate investment manager - made a return of over 17% over three and five years, according to the Investment Property Data (IPD) rankings which are published annually to investment managers.

Analysts warn any rival bid for insurance giant Prudential is unlikely to succeed despite its failing £17.5bn bid for American General, after AIG increased the Pru's by £1.5bn.