Regions

Companies in the UK are sitting on a multi-million pound pensions time bomb which is set to explode within the next few weeks, according to law firm Pinsent Curtis Biddle.

Employee benefit firm Gissings has been appointed to provide actuarial and advisory services to the Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers Union final salary pension fund.

Gartmore Investment Management has appointed BNP Paribas' Jeremy Hale as its new head of fixed income strategy.

Zurich Scudder has launched a new defined contribution service, which will be led by Mark Stanley and Emma Douglas.

Optima Fund Management has launched the first of its distressed securities funds, The Scott's Cove Fund Limited. The fund, to be managed by Philip Schaeffer and Joseph Colquhoun, will begin trading on May 1, 2001.

PGGM, the Dutch Health Workers Pension Fund, has sold the freehold of 120 Old Broad Street to Standard Life Investments for £26.7m.

Garvin & Co has been appointed by MG Rover Group to act as consultants to its new pension scheme, following the Pheonix Consortium's take over of Rover from BMW.

Edinburgh Council's Lothian Pension fund has removed a £130m direct property mandate from Royal London Asset Management and has given it to Standard Life Investments.

SEI Investments, the institutional asset manager, has won its third mandate since setting up its offices in the UK.

Environmental lobby group Friends of the Earth has attacked the government on the eve of stakeholder pensions launch claiming it failed to disclose the availability of socially responsible investment-based pensions.