Henderson rapped over 'failings'

HENDERSON Global Investors, one of Britain's best-known pension fund managers, has been severely criticised for a catalogue of failings in a damning internal report.

The 36-page report on the company's practices identifies 39 areas of concern, of which 10 are said to have 'significant implications for Henderson Global Investors as a result of exposure to risk'.

The concerns in the report range from failure to conduct required regular reviews of investments to inadequate record-keeping. Henderson, led by Roger Yates, has about 350 institutional mandates but the audit could not find complete signed documentation for 16 of them and of the remainder 106 were out of date.

Henderson manages pension funds for a number of blue-chip clients, including the BBC, ITN, Cadbury Schweppes and Imperial Tobacco. A spokeswoman for Henderson said the report was only a first draft and contained a number of inaccuracies, although she was unable to say what they were.

The report is yet another setback for Australian financial group AMP, which bought Henderson in 1998. Its UK foray has proved a disaster and it is trying to demerge Henderson along with its life assurance businesses, Pearl Assurance, London Life and NPI.

Yesterday Merrill Lynch increased its loss forecast for AMP to A$2.02bn (£809m) as a direct result of the problems at Henderson.