EUROPE - Cardano has been appointed as investment adviser to The Pensions Trust's £800m (€935m) Growth Plan.

Phil Page, client manager at the fiduciary managers, said: "We're aiming to help them address the complex market investment challenges, further enhance the service to their members and have a considerable and positive impact on the Growth Plan."

Keith Nunn, chair of The Pensions Trust's investment committee, said: "Vital for us was finding a pro-active adviser who could bring us fresh ideas and help us to implement them in a dynamic and timely way.

"Cardano demonstrated not only this insight and original thinking, but also that they have excellent flexibility in their range of investment services. They are also a genuinely nice group of people with a similar corporate culture to ourselves."

In other news, Sweden-based technology group Sandvik has appointed Mercer to provide multiple global actuarial, pensions and benefits services for more than 40,000 of its employees worldwide.
 
The consultancy was appointed global actuary with a view to developing a global pension risk management strategy in more than 15 countries.

It will act as defined benefits administrator in Canada, Germany, the UK and the US and manage the company's benefits globally, as well as support Sandvik in the initial phases of global defined contribution plan management.
 
In the Netherlands, Pensionkasse Stadt Zürich (PKZH) has entered into an investment performance service agreement with Ortec Finance.

The service is based on Ortec's ex post risk and return platform PEARL.

The aim will be to provide PKZH insight in the impact of the decisions made throughout its investment decision process, starting from asset allocation decisions to the influence of single managers on results.

Finally, Aon Hewitt has been appointed by the trustees of the University of St Andrews Pension Scheme to supply a range of services to the fund.

The consultancy will provide the Scottish university's pension scheme with services including actuarial and investment advice, pensions administration and risk benefits consultancy.

The fund is valued at £65m and has more than 1,300 members.