Neuberger & Berman is expected to announce tomorrow that it is no longer for sale. The firm has called off its search - first reported last November - for a strategic partner because it apparently failed to find a firm that represented the right fit.
Following its merger with MassMutual, Connecticut Mutual has named Babson-Stewart Ivory International, an affiliate of MassMutual, as subadviser of the international portfolios of its LifeSpan life cycle funds and variable annuities. It is terminating Scudder, Stevens & Clark, the former subadviser.
Also as a result of the merger, OppenheimerFunds, another MassMutual subsidiary, will manage a $2.3 billion group of open-end mutual fund and variable annuity portfolios.
The College of William & Mary's $150 million-plus endowment fund, Williamsburg, Va., hopes to pick finalists soon in its search for a balanced value manager. The search is intended to diversify the endowment's money, the bulk of which is with The Common Fund, said William Copan Jr., director of private funds. The manager will be allocated approximately $12 million, which will come from cutting back money with The Common Fund.
The $22 billion Minnesota State Board of Investment, St. Paul, yesterday hired money managers to execute investment strategies for bonds, emerging markets and alternative investments.
BlackRock Financial Management was hired to manage a semi-passive bond portfolio, said Howard Bicker, executive director. The amount has not been determined, but it will be in the range of $1 billion, said Mr. Bicker.
The money will come from Fidelity Management Trust Co., which resigned Jan. 1 because the SBI would not agree to a fee increase, according to the minutes of the December board meeting. Telephone calls to Fidelity were not returned.
The board also hired Montgomery Securities, Genesis Emerging Markets and City of London to each manage an emerging markets equity portfolio, Mr. Bicker said. It has not been determined how much each manager will receive, but the fund has an allocation of 2% of total assets to emerging market equities, said Mr. Bicker. The funding source hasn't been determined.
Earlier, the board committed $40 million to the First Reserve Fund VII and $25 million to the Banc Fund IV, said Mr. Bicker. First Reserve will invest in energy companies; the Banc Fund will invest in small banks that are expected to be bought by larger ones, said Mr. Bicker. The commitments will be funded from cash.
Board members overseeing $192 million of pension assets for St. Louis County, Clayton, Mo., selected Morgan Grenfell for a $30 million fixed-income assignment, and may change the fund's asset allocation, said Ralph Bowser, retirement plans administrator.
Contracts haven't been signed yet, but Morgan Grenfell was chosen to take over half of the fund's 40% allocation to fixed income. Incumbent Boatmen's will continue to run the other half, he said.
As for the asset allocation, at issue is whether to change the fund's 60% equity 40% fixed income allocation, he said; board members will discuss the issue later this month. Board members also may consider getting out of the fund's small 2% to 3% allocation to real estate, he said. Adding a small-cap mandate also is something the board has considered, but nothing has been decided, any changes would be far down the road, he said.
The $126 million University of New Mexico endowment, Albuquerque, revamped its domestic equity lineup. Two all-cap managers were given $32 million each to run the fund's entire domestic equity portfolio, said Charles Vickers, endowment manager.
MFS Asset Management will run an all-cap growth portfolio modeled after the firm's MFS Research mutual fund; MacKay-Shields will run an all-cap value portfolio.They replace two primarily large-cap managers, Sirach for growth and Smith Barney for value.
``We were not necessarily comfortable making specific allocations to large and small cap...,'' Mr. Vickers said.
Mercer assisted.
