Norfolk Southern Corp., Norfolk, Va., may reduce the passive allocation for its $1.2 billion pension fund, said James N. Bayley, director-financial planning.
The fund has about 20% allocated to the S&P 500 index, run by Barclays Global Investors. A decision could be made in May or June. Hamilton Co. is assisting.
Oklahoma Public Employees' Retirement System, Oklahoma City, will terminate a $170 million fixed-income portfolio managed by Nicholas-Applegate Capital Management and shift the assets to Firstar Investment Research & Management.
Steve Edmonds, executive director, said the action is part of a reallocation of the $3.4 billion fund's fixed-income assets to eliminate intermediate-term fixed income and increase core bonds. The shift will increase the fund's core fixed-income assets to about $600 million, all managed by Firstar.
Brunswick Securities, the U.S. affiliate of Brunswick Brokerage in Russia, received NASD approval to begin trading local Russian shares with U.S. institutional investors, it was announced today. Brunswick Securities is now permitted to sell underlying, ordinary shares of Russian issuers directly to institutional clients. According to BSI, it is the first U.S. broker-dealer affiliated with an independent Russian brokerage firm to get authority to sell, self-clear and settle transactions in Russian equities to and for U.S. institutions.
SAFECO Life Insurance added three outside fund managers to its participant-directed SAFEFLEX variable annuity product for the 401(k) market: American Century, Lexington Management and Federated Investors. In addition, SAFECO will offer an in-house managed small-cap equity portfolio.
American Century will run balanced and international funds, Lexington will run emerging markets equity and natural resources funds and Federated will run utilities, international stock and high-income bond funds.
AIMR this summer will begin a pilot program for advanced certification in equity and fixed income, beyond the charter financial analyst designation. If successful, the programs will be formally introduced in late summer 1998. Additional specialized certifications could follow.
