UK – (Update) Southwark Borough Council has withdrawn a legal claim against its former pension fund manager Merrill Lynch Investment Managers. (Updates with Southwark comments.)

A spokeswoman for the council in central London confirmed that it has withdrawn its planned legal action against MLIM, which was reported in the UK press today.

She gave no further details. The UK press had earlier said that Southwark had issued a claim against MLIM. A spokesman at MLIM did not return calls seeking comment.

MLIM is still recovering from an out-of-court settlement with consumer products firm Unilever concerning the mishandling of its pension fund in December 2001.

The last quarter of 2002 saw MLIM lose a series of high-profile mandates including Diageo, BAA, the University of Bristol, and local authorities Harrow and Essex. But at that time a spokesman for the company insisted it was still winning mandates.