BIRMINGHAM, England - The 1 billion ($1.56 billion) Cadbury Schweppes PLC pension fund hired State Street Global Advisors United Kingdom Ltd., London, to apply a tactical asset allocation overlay on half of its assets, said O. Hugh Edwards, U.K. pensions director.
SSGA will apply the overlay on nearly 500 million in assets invested by five specialist managers.
The other half of the fund is in a balanced portfolio managed by Fleming Investment Management.
Mr. Edwards said there had not been an active asset allocation among the specialist portfolios, and fund officials hoped to add some value through the overlay program.
Watson Wyatt Worldwide, Reigate, was the consultant in the hire.
3i raises 350 million
for U.K. buy-out fund
LONDON - 3i PLC, a leading U.K. buy-out specialist, raised 350 million ($546 million) to invest in U.K. management buy-outs of 10 million or more. Investors from North America, Britain and the Far East have committed half of the funds, while 3i will provide the rest from its own capital.
The fund already has made five investments since its first closing in March. This is the final closing.
Commerz International
offers Japanese fund
FRANKFURT - Commerz International Capital Management GmbH introduced a Japanese stock portfolio using a value-tilted model developed by subsidiary Martingale Asset Management.
This is the first effort by Commerz to provide active stock selection.
Parent company Commerzbank, Frankfurt, has invested more than $10 million in seed capital into the new portfolio, which is being marketed to Japanese investors.
Markets show gains
during August
World equity markets posted modest gains in August - the Morgan Stanley Capital International World Index rose 1% in dollar terms; the Europe Australasia Far East Index rose 0.1%; and the Emerging Markets Free Index climbed 2.4% during the period.
Among developed markets, 19 advanced while three declined. Among the strongest markets during August were: Finland, up 11%; Sweden, 6.6%; and Australia, 6.2%. Decliners among developed markets were Japan, which lost 4.5%; France, down 2.2%; and Italy, off 0.9%.
Among emerging markets, 17 rose during the month, while nine fell. The strongest gainers: Hungary, 20.1%; Mexico, 9.2%; and Poland and Venezuela, 8.6% each. Korea fell 5.3%; Pakistan, 4%.
