HIRINGS
PPG Industries Inc., Pittsburgh, will introduce eight new investment options from Fidelity in its $2 billion 401(k) savings plan early next year.
PPG will retain its internally administered company stock fund, which contains about 68% of total assets, and will add eight Fidelity mutual funds. Options being eliminated are a balanced fund from PanAgora; an S&P 500 index Fund managed by Mellon Capital; and a wrapped stable value income fund jointly managed by J.P. Morgan, BlackRock, TCW and Pacific Investment Management.
The plan also will move to daily valuation from monthly. Hewitt Associates will continue as record keeper, said Joseph G. Zyra, manager capital accumulation.
Times Mirror Co.'s $1 billion pension fund, Los Angeles, hired State Street Global Advisors for a passive S&P 500 index portfolio, said Rajender K. Chandhok, assistant treasurer, pension and investments. He did not disclose the size. The fund simultaneously terminated two unnamed underperforming active equity managers, one for U.S. stocks, the other for global equities.
The moves were part of an overall allocation shift that increased total equities - including domestic, international, real estate and alternative investments - to about 70% from about 50%. The fixed-income allocation has dropped to 30% from 50%. Part of the shift was accomplished through a change in the mandates for multiasset class managers J.P. Morgan and Capital Guardian. Mr. Chandhok declined to elaborate.
Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transit Authority hired Barclays Global Investors as an enhanced core U.S. equity manager for its $675 million pension fund. Barclays will handle about $65 million. The money had been temporarily placed in an index portfolio managed by Bankers Trust, said Donna Robinson Mills, senior investment manager. Asset Strategies assisted.
University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, Wash., hired Vanguard to manage a $16 million U.S. equity index portfolio for its $128 million endowment. Vanguard joins Becker Co. in replacing The Common Fund, which was dropped as a domestic equity manager about a year ago, said Mike Rothman, vice president for finance and administration.
The Common Fund continues to manage $12 million in international equity.
Frank Russell assisted.
The Rockefeller Brothers Fund, New York, committed to two limited partnership funds as a result of rebalancing.
The $390 million fund placed $7.5 million in both the Contrarian Capital Management's Distressed Securities Fund and The Investment Fund for Foundations' TIF Partners One Fund, an alternative investment fund of funds. Assets came from cash and a decrease in the foundation's fixed-income allocation to 25% from 35%, said Benjamin Shute Jr., secretary and treasurer. No managers were let go. Cambridge Associates assisted.
The University of Wyoming, Laramie, hired Navellier to manage $2 million in small-cap equities, a new asset class for the school. The endowment has $40 million in assets. The John Vann Co. assisted
