Novartis Corp., Tarrytown, N.Y., will offer no mutual funds when it consolidates the $2 billion in 401(k) assets from Sandoz, Ciba-Geigy and Gerber Products. Northern Trust, trustee of the Sandoz plan, will be trustee of the new plan. A record keeper still has to be chosen. Officials expect to choose among Buck, Sandoz's record keeper; Benefit Services, Ciba-Geigy's; and Hewitt, Gerber's. A decision could be made by July. Officials hope to merge the assets into one fund by Jan. 1.
The new funds are: a money market portfolio and S&P 500 index managed by Bankers Trust; intermediate and short-term bonds, run jointly by J.P. Morgan and Goldman Sachs; enhanced bond index, run by State Street Global; TAA, run by J.P. Morgan; small company stock, run by Amerindo, Putnam, TCW Group, LSV Asset Management and Rosenberg; aggressive growth, run jointly by Amerindo and Putnam; non-U.S. equities, to be run by managers not named yet; and company stock, managed by Northern Trust.
All of the portfolios are separate accounts, except the enhanced bond index and S&P 500 index, which are commingled funds.
Trustees of the MFS Aggressive Small Cap Equity Fund, controlled by MFS Investment Management, divested Louis G. Navellier and his lawyer, Alan Alpers, from positions as trustees of the fund. Arnold D. Scott, senior executive vice president and a director of Massachusetts Financial Services, will replace the Navallier representatives on the board. Mr. Navellier's firm, Navellier Management, ran the fund until March 16, when the fund's trustees hired MFS to take over.
The IBM Japan pension fund, Tokyo, will conduct an asset-liability study to begin this month. Akihiko Ohwa, manager of financial projects in the treasury unit of IBM Japan, said the study should be completed before September. The fund has assets of ¥300 billion ($2.4 billion). The review is being prompted by pension fund deregulation in Japan.
