MidAmerican Energy Co., Des Moines, is revising the investment guidelines for the pension funds of the companies that merged to form MidAmerican July 1.
The two defined benefit funds - the $150 million plan of Iowa-Illinois Gas & Electric Co. and the $190 million plan of Midwest Resources - will be kept separate.
An internal investment committee will revise, probably by October, the guidelines, said Lance Cooper, group vice president of finance and accounting.
The revision could result in investment changes, but he said it's too early to say.
The Charles Schwab Corp. acquired TrustMark Inc., part of Schwab's continuing assault on the defined contribution plan market.
TrustMark provides daily record-keeping software for 401(k) plan administration to 318 clients such as banks, third-party administrators, mutual fund companies and corporate employee benefit departments.
TrustMark's staff will remain based in Charlotte and will continue to offer software support for clients who are not using Schwab's
New plan proposed for D.C.
District of Columbia Council Chairman David Clarke has introduced a bill that would phase out the district's defined benefit plan and set up a new defined contribution plan for teachers, firefighters and police who start work on or after Oct. 1.
Mr. Clarke's main concern is the growing $5 billion unfunded liability in the district's $3.2 billion defined benefit plan.
Jeanna Cullins, executive director of the District of Columbia Retirement Board, said the legislation "as written has a lot of problems."
The almost $500 million Atlanta General Employees' Pension Fund hired UBS and Scudder to split $162 million in fixed income, according to Angela Green, trustee.
The money used to be run in-house.
In addition, the firm has hired New Amsterdam Partners to run $22 million in large-cap growth stocks.
It also increased allocations to existing managers INVESCO for core equities and Kenwood for value.
Washington Hackett and Wyatt assisted.
Convergent Capital Management purchased Ambs Investment Counsel for an undisclosed amount.
Keith Ambs, president of Ambs Investment, said he sold the firm to ease succession issues. Ambs has $350 million under management in stocks and bonds.
Convergent was formed last October to purchase firms in a United Asset Management-like fashion.
Ambs is its first purchase, but executives hope to buy one more firm before year end, said H. Tom Griffith, president.
A Paris court has ordered the Euris investment trust to transfer 2.2 million shares of its stock to Robson Rhodes, the liquidator of Bishopsgate Investment Management, the former Maxwell company internal money manager.
London-based Robson Rhodes had alleged the shares had been used improperly as collateral for a 145 million French franc loan made by Banque Nationale de Paris to Headington Holding Ltd., a Maxwell private company. It had sought to recover 33 million for loss of the shares.
The shares had been held in a common investment fund for various Maxwell company schemes that was managed by Bishopsgate.
Both Euris and Banque Nationale are appealing.
Trustees of the $3.9 billion School Employees Retirement System of Ohio, Columbus, hired J.P. Morgan Investment Management and Sanford C. Bernstein to manage about $300 million apiece in fixed-income securities, said Thomas Anderson, executive director.
Final amounts will be determined as part of contract negotiations, he said.
Earlier, the board hired Western Asset Management and Dodge & Cox to manage about $300 million apiece in fixed-income securities.
The 124 billion Danish kroner ($23.2 billion) Arbejdsmarkedebts Tillaegspension, Hillerod, Denmark, hired Unibank to manage between 150 million and 200 million kroner in a Far Eastern (ex-Japan) equity mandate in a unit trust. Funding came from cash reserves.
The hiring marks the fund's first externally managed portfolio and its first investments outside of Europe.
Group Dekko International Inc., Kendallville, Ind., hired Putnam Defined Contribution Services to provide fully bundled services for its $40 million 401(k)/profit-sharing plan. Participant investment control will be introduced Jan. 1, with five diversified mutual funds from Putnam, said Kathy Cochard, a corporate accountant at Dekko. The plan has been internally managed and administered.
Matthew Smith, a former senior portfolio manager prominent in the $2.3 billion Amoco Corp. pension fund's use of derivatives, joined Lotsoff Capital Management, known mostly for its derivative-based fixed-income investing.
Mr. Smith will be a portfolio manager.
Private equity unit added
Kemper Financial Services expanded its institutional investment management capabilities by introducing a private equity group.
It is part of Kemper Asset Management.
Portfolio managers for the new unit are Marshall Greenwald and Larry Wonnacott, both retail brokers at Chicago Corp. who joined Kemper as senior vice presidents.
Mr. Greenwald and Mr. Wonnacott will manage portfolios totaling about $175 million in partnership and direct investments, seeded by assets from various Kemper Corp. and Kemper National Insurance Co. entities.
