SEARCHES & HIRINGS
New York City Deferred Compensation Plan will interview AIM and T. Rowe Price for a $153 million small-cap mandate next week. A decision is expected May 7. AIM is the incumbent manager.
Separately, trustees of the $2.1 billion plan.
retained FASCorp as record keeper for a year with an option to renew the contract.
Other searches in progress are for a GIC manager, synthetic GIC manager, auditor and education/communication vendor. Hirings should be made in late summer and fall.
Purdue University, West Lafayette, Ind., hired Warburg Pincus as its fourth international equity manager for its $800 million endowment fund.
The firm was hired to boost exposure to international equities, said James E. Benken, director of investments. He would not reveal the amount of the assignment or source of funding. The search was conducted in-house.
DeWitt Wallaace-Reader's Digest Fund, with $946 million, and the $734 million Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund hired three managers, said Rob D. Nagel, CFO and treasurer of both New York funds.
EII Realty Securities will manage a portfolio of REIT securities; Wellington Trust will manage an energy fund; and the funds invested in a TA Associates Realty real estate partnership. The amount assigned to each was unavailable. Assets came from a reallocation. Cambridge Associates assisted.
Tri-State Carpenters Pension Trust Fund, Chattanooga, Tenn., with $135 million in assets, hired GLOBALT to run $12.6 million in equities of U.S. companies that do business overseas. Assets for the hire came from cash. Investment Performance Services assisted.
Gainesville (Fla.) City General Employees Pension Plan and the Consolidated Police & Fire Officers Pension Plan terminated Mitchell Hutchins as equity manager after the departure of Fred Martin, portfolio manager, and shifted the money to Mr. Martin's new firm, Disciplined Growth Investors, said Alicia Sheppard, Gainesville treasury manager. The General Employees plan, with $100 million-plus in assets, had $21.9 million with Mitchell Hutchins; the consolidated plan, with $50.5 million in assets, had $9.5 million with the firm. No further changes are anticipated, Ms. Sheppard said.
Watertown (Mass.) Contributory Retirement System hired Boston Partners Asset Management as a small-cap manager. The firm will run $14 million and replaces Bay Bank. The termination was due to trustee concerns over Bay Bank's acquisition by Bank of Boston, said Joseph O'Reilly at Dahab Associates, the $45 million fund's consultant.
Northstar Investment Management hired Brandes Investment Partners to manage a new fund, the International Value Fund. Charles H. Brandes and Jeffrey A. Busby are co-managers of the fund, which will invest in value-oriented international equities.
CORRECTION: Wisconsin Power & Light Co., Madison, Wis., IES Utilities Inc., Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and Interstate Power Co., Dubuque, Iowa - which hope to complete a merger in the fourth quarter - are considering a search for a consultant. An April 28 news item stated in error the search had begun.
