HIRINGS
Alliant Techsystems, Hopkins, Minn., hired BNY Overlay Associates as currency overlay manager for its $950 million defined benefit trust fund, said Melanie Miller, manager of treasury operations and pension investments. BNY will provide currency hedging for the $200 million that is managed by the fund's international equity managers. Alliant decided to hire an overlay manager because of the high percentage of international equities in its fund, she said. Frank Russell assisted.
E.W. Scripps Co., Cincinnati, hired Denver Investment Advisors and Vanguard as equity managers for its $207 million defined benefit plan.
Denver will run a midcap U.S. equities mandate and Vanguard's allocation will go into the firm's Institutional Index Fund, said Tim King, spokesman for E.W. Scripps. Fund officials would not say how much each firm will manage. Funding will come from existing managers, and no managers are being terminated, Mr. King said. The hirings followed a restructuring of the pension fund.
The searches were conducted in-house.
Sierra Pacific Power, Reno, Nev., hired Vanguard as trustee and record keeper of its 401(k) plan. Vanguard replaces Bank of New York, which was trustee for the past year, said Diane Bates, benefits strategist. Ms. Bates would not give the size of the plan, but according to Nelson's Directory of Plan Sponsors it has $20.2 million in assets.
Prior to Bank of New York, Vanguard was the bundled provider for the plan. The firm now will provide a ``quasi-bundled'' approach in providing record keeping and investment management along with outside fund managers to help the company save on fees. Sierra originally moved to Bank of New York in anticipation of a merger that never took place.
Citizens National Bank, Meridian, Miss., hired Fifth Third Bank as custodian for the bank's $150 million of trust assets. Fifth Third will provide safekeeping of trust assets, trade settlements, income collection and reporting. It replaces First Chicago NBD, which is withdrawing from the custody business. The search was done in-house.
