Regions

US - BlackRock has lured the trio who launched Merrill Lynch's private equity business to help kick-start direct private equity offerings within BlackRock.

GLOBAL - Russell Investments and Axioma have launched a suite of long-only factor-based indexes for US small and large cap equities. The ten indexes aim to provide institutional investors with vehicles to manage exposure to five risk factors within portfolios....

GLOBAL - US small cap growth was one of the best-performing asset classes in the first quarter of the year,with tope performer Sawgrass Asset Management posting returns of 21.5%, the latest PSN Top Guns list shows.

Neuberger Berman, SL Investment Management, Standard Life, GESB, Acadian, Pioneer, Russell Investments, Northern Trust

GLOBAL - HSBC Global Asset Management has launched the first CIVETS fund available to institutional investors.

GLOBAL - Some 93% of institutional hedge fund investors are considering increasing their allocation to the asset class over the next three years, suggesting a "significant" inflow of capital to come, research by Preqin suggests.

GLOBAL - Africa and Russia represent some of the best investment opportunities for funds considering emerging and frontier markets, Danish pension funds heard.

GLOBAL - Have you missed the biggest stories in pensions this week? Find out below, as we list the top 10 most popular stories on www.globalpensions.com over the past seven days.

EUROPE - Pioneer Investments has appointed current head of western Europe Fabien Madar as head of the Netherlands and Nordics.

GLOBAL - Manager search activity increased in 2010 with emerging markets and alternative asset classes receiving most interest, research by Mercer reveals.