SEARCHES & HIRINGS
New Mexico Public Employees' Retirement Association, Santa Fe, will conduct a consultant search because the fund's contract with Wilshire is set to expire. Consultant RFPs probably will be issued Feb. 5 and will be due back March 20. Wilshire, whose contract expires June 30, will be allowed to bid. The $5.75 billion fund will probably do an asset allocation study once a firm is selected, said Robert Gish, director of investments.
As expected, the fund also will start a search for an EAFE stock manager, probably in March. Capital Guardian, which has the $487 million mandate, will be included in the search.
Officials also plan to finish a securities lending agent search by the end of this month. Swiss Bank, the fund's current agent, was allowed to re-bid.
Bechtel Power Corp., San Francisco, hired Capital Guardian Trust to manage non-U.S. equities; and Grantham, Mayo, Van Otterloo for global bonds, said Kent Copa, vice president at Fremont Investment Advisors, which runs the $2.1 billion defined benefit plan. He declined to reveal the size of the portfolios.
The international equity money was run by Kleinwort Benson, which was acquired by Dresdner RCM Global. A Dresdner spokesman said the firm had no comment. J.P. Morgan had managed the global bond money, but plan officials decided to diversify because the firm also manages some non-U.S. stocks for Bechtel, Mr. Copa said.
Bechtel hired the managers following an asset allocation study in December.
Iowa Public Employees' Retirement System, Des Moines, hired Oaktree Capital Management to run an initial mandate of $100 million in domestic high-yield bonds.
The new portfolio ultimately will reach $325 million and will be funded gradually during the year, said Mike Finnegan, senior investment officer for the $12.1 billion fund.
Initial funding came from cash; subsequent allocations will come from rebalancing. Wilshire assisted.
Shook, Hardy & Bacon LLP, Kansas City, Mo., hired Prudential Investments to provide quasi-bundled services for its 401(k) and money purchase plans.
Prudential will provide full-service administration and record keeping, employee communications and education and five of the 11 new investment options. Five options will be managed by other firms. An additional option permits the firm's 1,100 employees to use their own brokers.
Dale Chaffin, COO, would not disclose the size of the company's retirement plans; the 1998 Nelson's Directory of Plan Sponsors put the total assets at $95.7 million.
The company previously used bundled plan services from NationsBank. The search was conducted internally.
