The enormous press coverage of the High Court battle between the trustee of the Unilever Superannuation Fund and Mercury Asset Management (now taken over by Merrill Lynch), coming swiftly after the publication of the Government’s response to Paul Myners’ review of institutional investment in the UK, has put the duties of the investment manager to their pension scheme trustee clients centre stage.
Merrill Lynch paid a reported £70 million to settle the case during the course of the trial. In view of this substantial settlement, many pension scheme trustees will be considering whether they should initiate negotiations for compensation with their investment managers where there has been a prolonged period of significant under-performance against an agreed benchmark.
