UK -- The BBC’s £6bn (€8.7bn) pension scheme has declined comment on a report that it has dumped Deutsche Asset Management (DeAM) in the UK due to poor performance.

Peter Dunscombe, investment adviser at BBC Pension Trust Ltd, said he had “no comment” on a report that DeAM had lost a £500m specialist UK equity mandate at the end of 2004.

The report attributed the loss of the mandate to DeAM’s poor performance. The asset manager also refused to comment.

The BBC pension scheme’s 2004 report said the wanted its equity holdings to achieve a long-term return of 7.9%. Asset allocation for the scheme, advised by the investment consultant Watson Wyatt, is understood to be 60% shares, 30% bonds and 10% real estate.

If true, the loss of the BBC mandate would have marked the end of a terrible year for DeAM’s UK arm. For example, the business accounted for most of the €13bn in assets which DeAM as a whole lost in the third quarter of 2004. The business also saw a mass exodus of top executives during the year.

The situation at DeAM in the UK has declined to the point where Kevin Parker, Deutsche Bank’s new head of asset management, has put the business under review.

Parker plans to disclose the results of the review sometime this quarter. He has already relocated DeAM’s headquarters to Frankfurt from London.


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