The £7bn (€11bn) BBC pension fund is thought to have rejected moving a £700m equity mandate to Deutsche Asset Management (DeAM), the City destination recommended by its current fund manager M&G, now owned by the Prudential.

The Pru decided earlier this year to close down its institutional segregated UK equity business and recommended clients move to DeAM. Former Pru client British Energy is accepting the recommendation. Former M&G clients doing the same are, according to an insider, consultant engineers WS Atkins, Swansea, Norfolk and Rhondda councils and Oxford colleges Balliol and Trinity.