Regions

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.

EUROPE - Total assets held in investment funds throughout Europe rose 8.3% in 2001 to EUR4,594bn during the fourth quarter, on the back of investors flocking towards equities, according to FEFSI, the European investment fund body.

GLOBAL - Iris Financial, a provider of tailored component-based financial software solutions has redeveloped its business objects and core financial technology for the Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE).

GLOBAL - SecFinex (www.secfinex.com), the online marketplace for securities finance, has introduced an online auction system which allows securities lenders to auction individual lines of stock over the internet.

UK - Fund managers revenues shrank for the first time in five years, despite cost containment measures being put into practice, according to new research from consultants PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

GLOBAL - Hong Kong Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) posted an 18% drop in pre-tax profits prompted mainly by bad debt provisions, including Argentina.

EUROPE - Business confidence is making a steady climb according to new figures from the European Commission.

GLOBAL - State Street Global Advisor's chief investment officer Alan Brown believes that tactical asset allocation is on the verge of a comeback, as market conditions are far removed from the boom days of the 1990s.