Regions

ASIA - Asian countries excluding Japan will continue to see strong economic growth, resulting in "robust corporate profitability", industry experts have predicted.

GLOBAL - Co-operative Insurance Society (CIS) has appointed three specialist fund managers for its £1bn overseas Life and Pensions portfolio, following a review of its investment management functions.

GLOBAL - Fund of hedge funds have seen assets under management grow by a staggering 60% over the last 12 months, a new report by Riskdata claims.

RUSSIA - The Russian market is likely to improve in the short term as investor's "appetite for risk" is on the upswing, the Eastern European Trust (EET), managed by Pictet Asset Management, has predicted.

GLOBAL - United Airlines have said the actions of flight attendants who threatened to hold strikes over the termination of the carrier's pension plan will "not be tolerated".

GLOBAL - International equity managers, bolstered by emerging markets returns, have outperformed in the second quarter, new figures from InterSec Research Corp claim.

GLOBAL - Lyxor AM, a wholly owned subsidiary of Société Générale Group, has announced the listing of two new tracker funds on Euronext Paris, to deal with the Chinese and Eastern European markets.

EUROPE - Record numbers of new European hedge funds have raised more than US$13bn of assets in the first half of 2005, according to research from news and performance data provider EuroHedge.

EUROPE - Fortis Investments, a multi-product asset management company, has been awarded an "AM2" asset manager rating by Fitch Ratings.

EUROPE - Watson Wyatt has admitted that its implementing consulting model is akin to manager of managers.