LONDON (Reuters) – One of Britain’s biggest ever security operations was running smoothly for the royal wedding on Friday and London’s often unpredictable transport network was coping well with the huge crowds, officials said.

A London police spokesman said there had been no arrests in the center of the capital as hundreds of thousands of people gathered for a glimpse of Prince William and Kate Middleton.

Three people — two men aged 45 and 68 and a woman of 60 — were arrested in southeast London on suspicion of conspiracy to cause a public nuisance and breach of the peace. They were suspected of planning to behead royal effigies.

A fourth person, described by police as “a well-known anarchist” was arrested overnight in the university city of Cambridge, northeast of London.

Around 5,000 police will be on duty to protect the wedding from a range of possible threats, including Irish republican militants, Islamist groups and anarchists.

“Everything is good so far,” a Metropolitan Police spokesman said. “The big test will be when they put the barriers down in the Mall (leading to Buckingham Palace). We won’t have estimates of the numbers in the crowds until later in the day.”

A handful of protesters gathered in Trafalgar Square — where crowds were watching the proceedings on a giant screen — and displayed a banner complaining about government cuts to public services and Britain’s military role overseas.

LONDON, April 12 (Reuters) – British investment company Alliance Trust (ATST.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) is confident it can defeat rebel shareholder Laxey Partners in a battle over costs and voting policy, after posting a 16 percent hike in net asset value.

Katherine Garrett-Cox, chief executive of the 123-year old investment trust, told Reuters the company had turned a “credible performance” in 2010, and had the backing of most of its investors against activist Laxey, which owns 1.6 percent of the stock, and which has accused Alliance Trust of masking the true cost burdens of its subsidiaries.

“I am very confident about our position, I think we have a great story, a lot of support. Ultimately, we are confident on May 20,” she said, referring to the upcoming general meeting (AGM) when shareholders are due to vote on changes that Laxey says will boost Alliance’s flagging share value.

The 123-year investment company had kept “out of trouble in what has been a volatile and very dangerous market,” Garrett-Cox said, with net asset value per share at Jan. 31 standing at 439 pence, compared with 377.7 pence posted in the previous year.

The company will pay a full-year dividend of 8.395 pence without dipping into reserves, and is seeking to grow dividends further this year by at least 2 percent. [ID:nLDE63F0UB]

Alliance shares were trading 0.7 percent down at 372.5 pence at 0917 GMT, against a 0.9 percent fall in the FTSE 250 .FTMC

AGM BATTLE

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s new national pension scheme for workers whose employers do not run their own plans has appointed HSBC (HSBA.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and F&C (FCAM.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) to run the Islamic and ethical portfolios respectively.

The National Employment Savings Trust (NEST), expected to become Britain’s largest pension fund with up to 100 billion pounds in total assets by 2030, will offer the two portfolios, among others, when it launches next year.

Contributions of members choosing Islamic fund management will be paid into the HSBC Life Amanah Pension Fund, run by the banking group’s Islamic finance unit. Such investments would shun association with areas forbidden by Islam, such as alcohol, weapons, pornography, gambling and mainstream financial services because they charge interest, also seen as sinful.

“The NEST Sharia fund will be 100 percent invested in this fund,” NEST’s head of investment Mark Fawcett told Reuters.

The contributions of those who want to invest in a portfolio which takes into account issues such as employment practices, human rights and the environment, will be funnelled into F&C’s Stewardship International Fund.

“There are positive focuses that align very well with what we know about our members; protecting human rights, good employment practices, positive impact on local communities,” Fawcett said, adding he expected the option to be reasonably popular.

NEST will charge members, potentially millions of workers with no corporate pension, the same fee as the default option, which is expected to attract around 80 percent of inflows given most members were expected to shy away from making specific investment choices.

LONDON, April 11 (Reuters) – Britain’s new national pension scheme for workers whose employers do not run their own plans has appointed HSBC (HSBA.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and F&C (FCAM.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) to run the Islamic and ethical portfolios respectively.

The National Employment Savings Trust (NEST), expected to become Britain’s largest pension fund with up to 100 billion pounds ($164 billion) in total assets by 2030, will offer the two portfolios, among others, when it launches next year.

Contributions of members choosing Islamic fund management will be paid into the HSBC Life Amanah Pension Fund, run by the banking group’s Islamic finance unit. Such investments would shun association with areas forbidden by Islam, such as alcohol, weapons, pornography, gambling and mainstream financial services because they charge interest, also seen as sinful.

“The NEST Sharia fund will be 100 percent invested in this fund,” NEST’s head of investment Mark Fawcett told Reuters.

The contributions of those who want to invest in a portfolio which takes into account issues such as employment practices, human rights and the environment, will be funnelled into F&C’s Stewardship International Fund.

“There are positive focuses that align very well with what we know about our members; protecting human rights, good employment practices, positive impact on local communities,” Fawcett said, adding he expected the option to be reasonably popular. NEST will charge members, potentially millions of workers with no corporate pension, the same fee as the default option, which is expected to attract around 80 percent of inflows given most members were expected to shy away from making specific investment choices. [ID:nLDE72O1FR]

The scheme has already appointed UBS (UBSN.VX: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), BlackRock (BLK.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and State Street (STT.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) to manage global equity, bond, cash and British sovereign debt. [ID:nLDE7122GR]

LONDON, March 28 (Reuters) – UK fund manager Aberdeen Asset Management (ADN.L: Quote, Profile, Research) said sales of equity funds more than offset outflows from other asset classes in the first two months of 2011, as it halted price cuts on its emerging markets products.

At February 28, Aberdeen had total assets under management (AUM) of 176.2 billion pounds ($282.2 billion), down 4 percent on falling markets and negative currency effects from the same period a year earlier.

During the first two months of 2011, 1 billion pounds of new money had flowed into Aberdeen’s equity funds, more than offsetting 800 million pounds of outflows from fixed income, alternative investments, property and money markets.

Chief Executive Martin Gilbert said the net inflows were encouraging and the “outlook for organic growth of assets under management remained favourable.”

Aberdeen noted equity pooled funds generated “significantly higher revenue margins than the outflows.” The company also expected to see further fixed-income inflows later this year.

Chief Financial Officer Bill Rattray said Aberdeen would stop its discount policy on emerging-market equity fees as the asset class attracted 459 million pounds in the two months to end-February, plus 600 million pounds in unfunded mandates.

Aberdeen said it had won a further 2.7 billion pounds of business — 1.5 billion pounds of which is in equity mandates, but these mandates had not been funded by end-February.

LONDON, March 22 (Reuters) – British employers are seeking to cut the cost of a levy charged by the body that takes on the pensions schemes of firms that go bust, by paying some of it in assets rather than cash.

Companies are rushing to meet a March 30 deadline to get assets like real estate recognised by the Pension Protection Fund (PPF), to benefit from a discount for paying in what is called contingent assets, lawyers and pension consultants said.

“Potentially a contingent asset can save an absolutely vast amount”, said a lawyer familiar with the process, who declined to be named.

UK corporate pension funds face a collective 600 million pounds ($983.1 million) PPF levy for the year 2011/12.

The PPF expects the number of assets it recognises as eligible for the levy to increase by up to about 21 percent for the 2011-12 financial year.

“That’s what we call the contingent assets season, which is shorthand for the two months before the end of March deadline, when everybody rushes around madly,” said Zoe Lynch, partner at law firm Sackers.

PPF data shows that the total number of recognised contingent assets has grown sevenfold since 2006 from 100 to 720 and increased 16 percent in the past year alone.