Regions

THE NETHERLANDS - Dutch pension insurance company, Optas Pensioenen has become the first pension fund to commit assets to a new European real estate fund launched by New York-based The Tuckerman Group.

GLOBAL - Global equity investment is still too risky, according to Investec Asset Management.

GLOBAL - World sovereign debt has continued to outshine equities and hedge funds, according to index provider MSCI.

GLOBAL - US hedge funds were outpaced by equities in October, despite posting modest gains.

EUROPE/UK - Merrill Lynch International has cut management fees for its Euro STOXX 50 and STOXX 50 LDRS from 0.50% to 0.35% in a bid to attract investors.

EUROPE - Convergence Capital, a newly-formed fund manager focused on Central and Eastern Europe and Russia (CEER), has launched a hedge fund which taps into the EU accession market.

THE NETHERLANDS - Robeco's Rolinco fund has switched to a growth-oriented benchmark, the Salomon Smith Barney GrowthPMI Total Return Index.

GLOBAL - A new survey is predicting a "very robust" rise in the use of hedge funds and private equity.

UK/EUROPE - Liberty Ermitage has launched a fund of hedge funds which will specialise in early stage European based funds.

GLOBAL - Brown Brothers Harriman (BBH) Foreign Exchange has launched the next generation FX WorldView, an upgraded web-based currency execution system.