Clemson University, Clemson, S.C., will be examining its $100 million endowment's fixed-income investments, said Dot Burchfield, director.
The university has 26% of assets in fixed income with Montag and Caldwell. The investment committee will discuss overall asset allocation at its April meeting. Any manager hirings likely will take place within the next year or so. Callan Associates is assisting.
The University of Massachusetts endowment fund, Boston, created a 5% allocation to alternative investments for its $55 million endowment fund, said Robert Lyons, executive director.
As part of its new alternatives allocation, the fund committed $1.5 million to a western Massachusetts-focused venture fund managed by Kestrel Venture Management, he said.
Fund executives will consider using commodities under the alternatives commitment, but no decisions have been made, he said.Prime Buchholz & Associates is assisting.
United Asset Management increased assets under management by $28.9 billion in 1996 despite a $3.3 billion drop in client cash flow. UAM assets grew to $171 billion from $142.1 billion. The asset losses did not hurt revenue thanks to higher-fee assignments replacing lower-fee ones, a company statement said.
Annual revenue grew 20% to $883.3 million from $734.4 million at year-end 1995. Of the new assets, $11.8 billion was gained through acquisitions - including international managers OSV Partners, Clay Finlay and Rogge Global Partners - and another $17.1 billion through internal asset growth among the 45 UAM affiliates.
Glasgow Investment Managers again topped the CAPS quarterly survey of U.K. pooled pension funds, returning 28.8% in 1996 compared with the median of 10.7%.
The manager's Glasgow Integrated Pension Scheme Investments also is the top-performing balanced fund (including property) for the two-, three-, four-, five-, six-, seven- and eight-year periods. For the five-year period, the fund returned a compound-annualized 25.7% vs. the median 14%.
Zurich Life Assurance and Swiss Life (U.K.) PLC also performed strongly last year, each up 15.2% in the balanced fund including property universe measured by Combined Actuarial Performance Services.
Over the five-year period, Fuji Investment Management (Europe) returned 21.4% and Abbey Life Investment returned 20.8%.
First Quadrant has started three equity portfolios benchmarked to the Frank Russell Large Value, Frank Russell Large Growth, and Frank Russell Small Stock indexes. The portfolios differ from the firm's core U.S. equity portfolio because they are designed to add value over a specific style benchmark instead of the S&P 500 index. The firm has $200 million in each portfolio.
SEARCHES & HIRINGS
University of Maryland officials are searching for a domestic equity manager and a consultant for the $120 million endowment. Current equity manager Alex. Brown runs the $100 million S&P 500 equity assignment and will be allowed to bid, said David Forman, manager of endowment funds. The investment committee of the Adelphi, Md., school is required to bid the portfolio every five years. RFPs are due Feb. 18 in the manager search. The allocation may be lowered depending on the outcome of an asset allocation study, which would be conducted by the new consultant.
The endowment has not had a full-time consultant for a couple years, Mr. Forman said. The board is informally asking for proposals, and no deadline has been set.
The London Borough of Sutton Superannuation Fund hired M&G Investment Management to manage a £64 million ($105 million) global balanced portfolio, said George Walmsley, head of corporate finance.M&G replaces CCLA Investment Management. He said trustees of the £126 million ($207 million) decided to switch to a more aggressive benchmark.
Watson Wyatt Partners, Reigate, assisted.
The Attleboro (Mass.) Municipal Contributory Retirement System, Mass., with more than $28 million in assets, received regulatory approval to invest $1 million in international stocks with Smith Barney, its first international stock manager, said Alison Ellsworth, the Segal Advisors consultant who assisted with the hiring.
WHO'S NEWS
Earl White was named director of pension administration for Consolidated Edison, New York. He will oversee investment management of the $7 billion in the company's pension, 401(k) plans, retiree health funds and nuclear decommissioning trust. He replaces John Bell, assistant treasurer, who retired.
Mr. White had been a manager-trust investments with the Public Service Electric and Gas Co., Newark, N.J., for 23 years. The company is seeking is replacement
