BASINGSTOKE, England - Winterthur Life UK Ltd. has gone full circle with its choice of custodian for U.K. securities.
The 510 million pounds ($831 million) portfolio had been custodied by NatWest's custody arm, but Winterthur officials switched the portfolio - then worth about 300 million pounds - to Barclays Global Securities Services when NatWest decided to sell off its custody operation to Lloyds Bank.
But when Barclays Bank sold its custody operation to Morgan Stanley & Co. last year, Winterthur officials decided it was time again for a change.
Winterthur officials wanted the assets to be handled by a bank regulated by the Bank of England, said Robert Mason, investment administration manager for the insurer. "We didn't want to go with an American bank. We went to Lloyds because it's an English clearing bank," he said.
In addition, Winterthur officials were familiar with Lloyds officials, since the bank previously had been custodian of the staff pension fund. (Lloyds was dropped when the pension fund was shifted to a money manager with an in-house nominee, which oversees settlement and clearance).
State Street Bank & Trust Co. is global custodian for about 100 million pounds in international securities. Another 900 million pounds in assets is custodied by external managers or done internally.
Nicholas-Applegate to buy
Credit Lyonnais Asia unit
SAN DIEGO - Nicholas-Applegate Capital Management reached an agreement to acquire Credit Lyonnais International Capital Management-Asia. Terms were not announced. Nicholas-Applegate will gain the Asia-Pacific investment operations of the French bank with money management teams in Hong Kong, Singapore and London. The deal is subject to regulatory approval. CLIAM-Asia manages about $700 million in several country equity funds focused on China, Singapore, Malayasia, Indonesia, India and other Asian countries.
Tom Waring, managing director of CLIAM-Asia, will stay on.
Berkshire County shifts
to 3 regional portfolios
READING, England - The Berkshire County Council Superannuation Fund reallocated most of a 143 million pounds international equity portfolio among three regional mandates.
Gartmore Investment Management PLC, London, was picked to manage a 36 million pounds to 38 million pounds European equities portfolio, while Schroder Investment Management Ltd. will manage a Japanese equities portfolio of similar size.
Wellington Management International, London, was hired to run a U.S. equity portfolio of 40 million pounds to 42 million pounds for the 707 million pounds ($1.15 billion) pension fund.
Depending on how much cash is left after the three segregated accounts are funded, some 20 million pounds to 25 million pounds will be invested in Pacific Basin (ex-Japan) equities through unit trusts and investment trusts. So far, 8 million pounds has been invested into Barclays Global Investors' Aquila Pacific Rim index fund.
The international equity portfolio previously had been managed by PDFM Ltd., London.
Hymans Robertson assisted in the manager selections.
Later this year, the fund will seek bids on a global custody tender for most of the fund. The search has been delayed because Berkshire County Council will be dissolved April 1, 1998, and responsibility for the pension fund will be handed over to the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead, one of six unitary authorities being created under the U.K.'s recent local government reorganization.
TIAA, Rodamco
sell Edinburgh property
EDINBURGH - The Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association and Rodamco UK sold Kinnaird Retail Park in Edinburgh to Pillar Property Investments PLC for 81 million pounds(U.S. $133 million).
The two institutional investors achieved an internal rate of return of about 40% during the 17 months they owned the property, which is a 340,000-square-foot mixed-used property on the southeastern outskirts of Edinburgh.
Axiom brings
premium price
SYDNEY - Deutsche Morgan Grenfell Australia Ltd. paid a premium price of A$240 million to buy Axiom Fund Management Corp., Sydney, which manages about A$19 billion (U.S. $14.8 billion) of investments for the New South Wales state government superannuation funds.
The bid actually was lower than an offer from National Australia Asset Management Ltd., the asset management arm of National Australia Bank Ltd., Melbourne, the largest Australian bank. But DMG was preferred, officially, because of its claimed better investment performance globally. There also was some hometown jostling to win the nod from NSW Premier Bob Carr.
DMG has promised to move about A$700 million of funds under management from London and its Singapore marketing operations to Sydney as part of the deal.
The decision means NAAM - already under pressure from NAB
Managing Director Don Argus to achieve a size more in keeping with NAB's status - is now looking for another purchase to increase its current A$5 billion in assets under management.
With the purchase, DMG becomes the fifth largest manager of funds in Australia behind the AMP Group, Bankers Trust Australia, Lend Lease Corp.'s MLC Ltd. and National Mutual Holdings Ltd. group. Previously, DMG had only A$1 billion of retail funds, inherited from its acquisition of stockbroker Bain & Co.There is no guarantee Axiom can hold all of its current assets because federal government legislation might allow members of superannuation funds to choose which fund they use.
DMG Managing Director John Barnes admitted the group had paid a "premium price" to fast-track its entry into the Australian market. Some earlier estimates put likely prices around A$200 million.
Current Axiom Managing Director Elizabeth Bryan will remain in charge.
Singapore investors lead
in U.S. real estate
Investors from Singapore comprised the largest foreign investor in U.S. commercial real estate, and office buildings were the property type of choice for overseas investment groups in 1996, according to the international investment team of CB Commercial Inc.
An analysis by the team, which profiled about $3 billion in transactions completed by foreign buyers during 1996, showed the largest amount of foreign investment, 37%, came from Singapore.
Germany was second, accounting for 18%. Unlike the Singaporeans' preference for offices, the Germans were diversified U.S. property investors, buying office, retail, industrial and apartment properties.
Other significant buyers were Hong Kong investors, 17%; Canadians, 10%; and Middle Eastern investors, 4%.
New style indexes
designed for U.K. market
LONDON - FTSE International is launching six new style indexes for the U.K. stock market using style methodology developed by Frank Russell Co. The offerings will be separate value and growth indexes for the FTSE 350, FTSE 250 and FTSE 100 indexes. The new indexes will start in June 1997 but will have historical data tracking back to December 1996.
FTSE International is owned equally by the Financial Times and the London Stock Exchange.
Morgan Stanley opens
office in Sao Paulo
SAO PAULO, Brazil - Morgan Stanley Group opened a fully operational office in Sao Paulo, Brazil, called Morgan Stanley do Brasil Ltda. The unit opened in 1995 as a small representative office. The operation is involved with proprietary trading of equity and equity derivative securities and adivosry services to clients with respect to capital raising and strategic opportunities in Brazil.
MSCI moves Portugal
into EAFE index
GENEVA, Switzerland - Portugal's market is graduating.
It is joining the Morgan Stanley Capital International Europe Australasia Far East index and will be taken out of the MSCI Emerging Markets Free Index effective Dec. 2. Capital International Perspective, the Geneva-based manager and calculator of the MSCI indexes, said the change reflects a recognition of Portugal's overall economic development, its macroeconomic and financial policies, and its equity market characteristics.
