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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.