Lend Lease Corp. is expected to announce as early as Tuesday that it reached agreement to acquire Equitable Real Estate for more than $400 million, industry sources said.
Equitable Real Estate will be merged with Yarmouth Group, a Lend Lease real estate manager subsidiary, sources said. Spokesmen for both firms declined to comment.
If the deal is finalized, Equitable Real Estate Chairman George Puskar will be chairman of the new company, and Equitable President Douglas Tibbetts will be president, industry sources said. Yarmouth CIO Daniel MacEachron and Equitable Senior Executive Vice President Paul Dolinoy will be co-heads of funds management, sources said. Matthew Bank and James Quill of Lend Lease will be CEO and COO respectively.
Institutional Property Consultants resigned as real estate consultant to the California State Teachers' Retirement System, Sacramento. The board of CalSTRS had requested IPC Chairwoman Barbara Cambon meet with it this month to discuss the discretionary consulting and fund-of-fund activities in which IPC had become involved.
``CalSTRS appears to have entered a period of transition, during which we understand it will be re-evaluating its long-term investment strategy,'' Ms. Cambon said in a letter to the fund. ``During this period and until CalSTRS determines its strategic direction, IPC cannot effectively fulfill its commitment to provide superior advice as real estate investment consultant.''
The Louisiana House Retirement Committee yesterday passed a bill that would let three of the four largest public retirement systems boost equity holdings to 70% of assets from 55%. However, the legislation would require the funds - the Louisiana State Employees' Retirement System, the Louisiana Teachers' Retirement System and Louisiana School Employees' Retirement System - to invest 10% of their equities in an index portfolio. The Louisiana Police Pension and Retirement System still would need approval from legislators to increase its equity holdings.
Companion legislation is scheduled to be heard by the Senate Retirement Committee on Monday.
The Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board, Toronto, selected Financial Models Co. to provide software services for portfolio management, performance measurement and attribution analysis, said Andrew L. Jones, vice president-finance for the C$50 billion (U.S. $36 billion) pension fund.
Small-cap stocks, represented by the Russell 2000 Index, returned -5.17% in the first quarter, Frank Russell announced today. It was the worst quarterly performance for small-caps since the second quarter of 1992.
The Russell 1000 index returned 1.5% for the quarter, while the Russell 200 Index returned 2.6%. The 50 largest stocks returned 3.5%, the best performance of any capitalization group for the quarter.
Value stocks outpaced growth in all capitalizations for the quarter.
German equities climbed 6.8% in March, leading the 29 countries covered by the Dow Jones Global Indexes. Singapore's market ranked last in the index, with a 9.9% drop for the month. For the quarter, South Africa and Taiwan were the best performers in U.S. dollar terms, rising 13.2% and 10.5%, respectively, while the 16.6% drop in Thailand's market ranked it last.
During the quarter, the U.S. market ranked 13th, with a 1.9% gain, as measured by the DJGI U.S. component. The Dow Jones industrial average climbed 2.1% in the first quarter.
