Texas Instruments, Dallas, may lose about one-third of its pension assets if a deal to sell its defense business to Raytheon Co. is approved, said Joe Anderson, manager of employee benefit fund investments.
The chunk of Texas Instruments' $2.65 billion in assets would be transferred to Raytheon's plan following Department of Justice approval of the sale, which could happen within the next few months, he said.
Texas Instruments has $1.9 billion in its 401(k) and profit-sharing plans and $750 million in its defined benefit plan. Raytheon has $5.7 billion in pension assets, according to Nelson's Directory of Plan Sponsors.
Pennsylvania Public School Employes' Retirement Board, Harrisburg, terminated Columbus Circle Investors as a U.S. growth equity manager, confirmed John Lane, chief investment officer of the $25 billion fund. Performance was the cause for the termination, Mr. Lane acknowledged. Columbus Circle managed $560 million when the relationship was severed. A Columbus Circle official said CIO Irwin Smith had no comment about the relationship with the fund.
In addition, the fund committed $75 million to TPG Partners II L.P., a private equity buy-out fund. The trustees also deferred funding a $100 million allocation to Investment Advisers Inc. because the firm lost a portfolio manager. An IAI spokeswoman declined to comment. The board will revisit the issue later, and the money will remain in cash.
Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corp., Poughkeepsie, N.Y., reduced by 10 percentage points its U.S. large-cap equity allocation for its $280 million pension fund, based on a J.P. Morgan Investment Management asset allocation model, said Steven V. Lent, treasurer and assistant secretary.
It cut the large U.S. stocks to 40%, or $112 million, from 50%, or $140 million, of total assets. The proceeds were reallocated to bonds, which go to 37% of assets from 27%.
J.P. Morgan, the fund's sole manager, has allocation discretion. The firm kept international equity and U.S. small-cap equity allocations intact at 10% and 5% respectively. It also kept the 8% real estate allocation.
Ohio State University, Columbus, is close to hiring a consultant to do an asset allocation review of its $700 million endowment fund. A consultant is to be named within the next couple of weeks. Fund officials have completed the interview process, but Treasurer James Nichols would not name finalists. The asset review should be completed by late summer and any searches would be done in-house, he added.
The Civic Employees Superannuation and Benefit Plan and the Police Superannuation and Benefit Plan, Regina, Saskatchewan, are completing a search for an asset consultant, the first step toward an asset allocation and liability study, said Gary Tramer, general manager-pensions and benefits.
The anticipated study, which the funds hope to complete by September, could result in investment management changes and diverging investment approaches of the C$400 million (U.S. $288 million) civic plan and the C$150 million (U.S. $108 million) police plan, which now are invested similarly. The plans, which don't use a consultant, hope to make a decision on the search by the end of the month.
Fidelity Investments acquired McQuade Inc., a small actuarial consulting firm based in Framingham, Mass., allowing Fidelity for the first time to offer retirement plan and benefits outsourcing consulting services. The consulting services will be integrated into a new business unit formed by Fidelity within its Institutional Retirement Group after combining its benefits outsourcing and human resources/payroll administration and processing services operations.
Phoenix Duff & Phelps launched a REIT institutional mutual fund for small to midsized pension plans. Barbara Rubin and Michael Schatt are co-managers of the Phoenix Real Estate Equity Securities Portfolio. The fund uses a ``growth at a reasonable price'' strategy. The minimum investment is $250,000.
The fund already has $5 million from one pension plan, which Ms. Rubin would not identify. The fund also holds another $5 million in seed money from Phoenix Home Life Mutual Insurance.
