Oklahoma Teachers' Retirement System, Oklahoma City, may conduct a search for an active small-cap equity manager this year, said Tommy Beavers, executive director. He said about $165 million invested in a small-cap index fund with Bankers Trust, the $3.6 billion fund's custodian, probably will be placed with the manager before 1998.
Fidelity Investments formed a new unit to focus more closely on the market for high-net-worth individuals. Fidelity Asset Management and Trust will combine discretionary asset allocation and personal trust for the first time. Lynn Davis is president of the new unit. She had been executive vice president of Fidelity Investments Premium Client Development Group, which will be folded into the new company.
Also, Martha B. Willis was named executive vice president of the retail mutual fund group, replacing Neil Litvak who left in November. She was most recently senior vice president of broker/dealer market management for Fidelity Investments Institutional Services.
The median managed equity account underperformed the S&P 500 Index for the quarter and year ended March 31. Of 932 equity managed accounts in PIPER, the median equity account returned 0.5% for the quarter and 15.7% for the year. The S&P 500 grew 2.7% for the quarter and 19.8% for the year.
The median fixed-income managed account in PIPER bested the Salomon Broad Bond Index, with the median's -0.1% for the quarter and 5.2% for the year vs. the index's -0.5% and 4.9% respectively.
For international equities, the median managed account in PIPER easily outperformed the MSCI EAFE index. The index returned -1.5% for the quarter and 1.8% for the year, while the median gained 0.7% and 8.4% for the same periods.
A planned link between the Chicago Board of Trade and the London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange may not begin as planned because the Commodity Futures Trading Commission has not approved it. Thomas R. Donovan, CBOT chairman and chief executive, complained in a letter to CFTC Chairwoman Brooksley Born that the CFTC hasn't yet approved the link, set for May 9, despite ample time. The CBOT made its first submission to the CFTC in July 1995 and two subsequent full-scale presentations to CFTC commissioners, he said.
A CFTC spokesman said the agency had no immediate comment on the letter or when approval might come. The link will allow the German bond contract to trade on the CBOT and the U.S. Treasury bond contract to trade on LIFFE.
Standard & Poor's Rating Services acquired Fund Research Ltd., a leading U.K. analyst of equity and bond funds worldwide. Terms were not disclosed. The firms will be integrated into a new unit called Standard & Poor's Fund Research.
The Workplace, Health, Safety and Compensation Commission, Saint John, New Brunswick, put daily risk oversight in place for its C$20 million ($15 million U.S.) long-only managed futures allocation, said Warren Gerow, manager of treasury and investments. The commission, with C$535 million ($387 million U.S.) in assets, gets daily investment data on its futures manager, Trilogy Capital Management. Positions are analyzed, looking at volatility for various periods, correlations with other markets and leverage.
He said the performance and volatility has been good for the allocation, which began in July 1996, with strong performance coming during the S&P 500's fall earlier this year. The allocation has been leveraged by as much as six times its cash allocation.
Roger Bransford today was awarded posthumously the Lillywhite Award. The award, sponsored by the Employee Benefit Research Institute recognizes lifetime service to the employee benefits industry.
The well-known and respected investment consultant was killed in a plane crash Jan. 9.
Mr. Bransford's widow, Ave, accepted the award at Pensions & Investments' investment management conference in Washington.
