Shareholders approved a merger between sister companies Kokusai Investment Trust Management and Kokusai Investment Management, both in Tokyo.
KITM, a unit trust company with ¥1.8 trillion ($14.3 billion) in assets under management, will merge July 1 with KIMCO, with ¥900 billion ($7.1 billion), subject to final shareholder approval at a June 30 meeting. The merged firm will be known as Kokusai Asset Management.
State Street Global Advisors was named chief technical adviser to the First Russian Specialized Depository, a private firm licensed by the Federal Commission for the Securities Market of the Russian Federation to provide custody and administrative services to Russia's unit investment funds.
FRSD is one of three firms licensed by the Russian commission to exercise fiduciary oversight of Russian unit investment funds and their management companies.
PaineWebber Group's asset management operations saw record growth in wrap fee assets, which helped make up for a drop in institutional assets in the first quarter. PaineWebber, parent of Mitchell Hutchins Asset Management, posted asset management revenue of $121 million for the quarter, up from $108 million a year earlier. Assets under management dropped to $44.6 billion in the quarter from $45.9 billion a year ago, mainly due to a decrease in institutional assets to $10.6 billion from $14.3 billion. Wrap fee assets grew 30.3%, to $15.5 billion from $11.9 billion.
American United Life added five mutual funds from external managers to its 401(k) program for small plans, bringing the number of options to 28. The new funds are the Janus Aspen Series Flexible Income and Worldwide Growth funds, the SAFECO RST Equity Fund, the PBHG Emerging Growth Fund and the AUL America Tactical Asset Allocation Portfolio, an internally managed option. AUL serves small defined contribution plans with 75 to 250 employees.
Penn Mutual Life Insurance added funds from four outside money managers to its stable of variable annuity and variable life products: Robertson Stephens-Emerging Growth fund; Morgan Stanley-Emerging Markets Equity; Neuberger & Berman-AMT Partners portfolio, a midcap value fund; and Fidelity VIP II Index 500 portfolio. Fidelity and Neuberger run other funds offered by Penn.
CLARIFICATION: A California Public Employees' Retirement System spokesman said a new RFP for U.S. equity managers requires the firms meet minority, women and disabled veteran contracting requirements before they can be funded. The RFP is on the Internet at http://www.calpers.ca.gov/invest/rfp/index.html.
