The lawyer for Merrill Lynch Investment Managers opened his defence in the Unilever case with the claim that Unilever trustees knew how the MLIM portfolio was constructed and believed it to have been constructed competently.

The Unilever Superannuation Fund is suing MLIM, previously known as Mercury Asset Management, for £130m ($207.3m) for negligently taking too much risk when managing £1bn for it between January 1, 1997 and March 31, 1998. MLIM contests the claim.