CARDIFF, Wales - The Council of the City and County of Cardiff will review its 388 million pounds ($663 million) pension fund at a Feb. 12 meeting, but no decisions on changing its manager lineup have been made, said John Birkin, investment officer.
The fund, formerly known as the South Glamorgan County Council Superannuation Fund, uses a specialist structure.
Jupiter Asset Management serves as asset allocator. Barclays Global Investors has a passive U.K. equities assignment, while Fleming Investment Management runs active U.K. equities and global bonds.
Mercury Asset Management runs a continental European equities portfolio; and INVESCO Asset Management manages separate U.S., Japan and Pacific Basin ex-Japan briefs.
Avon pension fund
to be restructured
BATH, England - The Avon Pension Fund is breaking its fund into three equal 400 million pounds chunks that will be managed in active/passive, passive/passive and active/active styles, respectively.
The 1.2 billion ($2.05 billion) fund is abandoning its existing core-satellite structure, including more than 400 million pounds in internally managed passive U.K. stock and bond portfolios.
External managers include G.M.O. Woolley for U.K. equities; PDFM Ltd., for Pacific Basin ex-Japan and continental European equities; Barclays Global Investors for a passive continental European brief; Schroder Investment Management, LGT Asset Management and State Street Global Advisors for emerging markets equity mandates; and Jardine Fleming Investment Management for Japanese equities. Schroder also advises on asset allocation issues.
Under the fund's new approach, three managers will be hired to each run 400 million pounds in global balanced briefs. One manager will provide passive stock selection and passive asset allocation in line with the U.K. average asset mix; a second will offer passive stock selection with an active tactical asset allocation overlay; and a third will provide active stock selection and active asset allocation.
Frank Russell Co., London, is the consultant.
ABP, consultant
change personnel
Stichting Pensioenfonds ABP, Heerlen, and William M. Mercer Klein Haneveld Investment Consulting BV, The Hague, effectively have done a swap of senior investment personnel.
Yelle Costa, former head of ABP's Far Eastern desk, joined the consulting firm as a consultant. Joost Lemmons, formerly a Mercer consultant in The Hague, became a portfolio manager for fixed-income investments at ABP.
Meanwhile, both ABP and Mercer Klein Haneveld have made staff additions elsewhere.
ABP made some minor restructurings within its investment department, but wouldn't release full details.
Robert Coomans, former portfolio manager at the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, was named manager of European equity investments at ABP. Also new to ABP is domestic equity manager Frans Peeters, formerly vice president-sales, foreign institutions for ING Bank's treasury and trading department, and bond manager Peter Faessen, formerly a portfolio manager, fixed-income investments with Heerlen-based AZL Investments.
Mercer Klein Haneveld also recruited Lucienne Leyten, formerly a portfolio manager for Far Eastern equities at Aegon as a consultant.
Van Eck reaches pact
with Shanghai firm
NEW YORK - Van Eck Global announced it has entered into an agreement with Shanghai-based Shenyin & Wanguo Securities to create a Hong Kong joint venture fund management firm.
According to Van Eck, the joint venture is the first ever that Shenyin & Wanguo - China's largest securities firm - has done with a U.S. mutual fund company.
The new company, to be called Shenyin Wanguo Van Eck Asset Management, will offer asset management services to Asian clients.
According to the agreement, Shenyin & Wanguo will own 51%of the company and Van Eck Global will hold the remaining 49%.
WM Co., Reuters launch new listing service
LONDON - The WM Co. and Reuters launched a new service listing the closing forward foreign exchange rates in an effort to create a global standard.
The WM/Reuters Closing Forward Rates index covers 36 currencies in which there exists a significant level of forward trading. Bid and offered rates against the U.S. dollar and British sterling for one-, two-, three-, six- and 12-month periods will be listed. Rates will be struck at 4 p.m. London time.
The rates will be used in valuing forward currency positions and calculating currency-hedges indexes throughout the world. Several major global index compilers are expected to adopt the standard.
The new service complements the WM/Reuters Closing Spot Rates, which have been the global standard for index calculation, valuation of global portfolios and general reference since their establishment about three years ago.
