ABT BUILDING PRODUCTS
NEENAH, Wis. - ABT Building Products Corp. hired SEI Asset Management for total benefits outsourcing of its $52 million defined benefit plan. SEI replaced BEA Associates for asset management and Associated Bank for trust and custody, said Thomas Kelly, vice president of human resources.
The changes don't affect ABT's $25 million in defined contribution assets, which are managed by American Century, he said.
Aqua-Chem
MILWAUKEE - Aqua-Chem added the Dodge & Cox Fixed-Income Fund to its defined contribution plan effective Jan. 1. The new fund brings the number of options to seven for the $40 million plan. Hewitt assisted.
Ash Grove Cement Co.
OVERLAND PARK, Kan. - Ash Grove Cement Co. hired Systematic Financial Management for its $130 million pension fund, said James Sunderland, chairman. The firm will be assigned $20 million to run in value equities. Funding will come from an equity portfolio managed in-house.
Dallas County
DALLAS - The Dallas County deferred compensation plan retained incumbent service provider PEBSCO and added Great West Life to provide additional investment options and investment education, said County Treasurer Bill Melton. The $37 million fund picked Great West to provide between 10 and 12 investment options in addition to PEBSCO's current 10 choices.
Des Plaines Firemen
DES PLAINES, Ill. - Des Plaines Firemen's Pension Fund hired its first domestic equity managers. Rittenhouse and Bidwell & Riddle will each manage about $4.2 million in large-cap core equities; Furman Selz will run $2.6 million in midcap equity; and Wasatch has been allocated $1.9 million for small-cap stocks.
Funding will come from the termination of fixed-income managers Fidelity and First Chicago and from annuities. Oppenheimer will continue to manage the remaining 65%of the $37 million fund in core U.S. fixed-income.
Florida Trowel Trades
MIAMI - The Florida Trowel Trades Pension Trust Fund hired Carl Domino to manage $5 million in a high-yield growth equity portfolio.
Funding will come from the termination of Pacific Mutual, a balanced manager that had run $26 million. The termination was part of a move by the $55 million fund to specialty managers, said Frank Dalrymple, administrator. The remainder of the Pacific Mutual portfolio was moved to existing managers. Investment Performance Services assisted.
Greyhound Lines Inc.
DES MOINES, Iowa - Greyhound Lines Inc. hired M&I Global Securities Lending as its first third-party securities lending agent for its defined benefit plan. Paul Owsley, executive administrator, said at least 50%or 60%of the $800 million plan will be included in the securities lending program. Hartland Co. assisted.
Longmont Fire and Police
LONGMONT, Colo. - Longmont Fire Pension Plan with $11 million in assets, and the Longmont Police Pension Plan with $12 million, each hired ICMA Retirement as a bundled service provider, said Jim Golden, director of finance for the city. The two 401(a) plans previously used Norwest Bank as record keeper, Wells Fargo Bank as custodian and Fidelity Investments for investment options.
The Loxcreen Co.
WEST COLUMBIA, S.C. - The Loxcreen Co. selected American Century as bundled provider for its $14 million 401(k) profit sharing plan. American Century will provide eight investment options in addition to daily valuation and record keeping. The plan previously was employer-directed in a NationsBank pooled fund.
NationsBanc Advisors
CHARLOTTE, N.C. - NationsBanc Advisors Inc. hired Marsico Capital Management to subadvise two new mutual funds - the Nations Marsico Focused Equities Fund and the Nations Marsico Growth & Income Fund.
Oregon Public Employes
SALEM, Ore. - The $27 billion Oregon Public Employes Retirement Fund placed $250 million with each of three international equity managers: Brandes Investment Partners; Driehaus Capital Management; and Sanford Bernstein.
Oregon also will place another $250 million with a still-to-be-determined emerging markets investment firm.
The fund also decided to retain Pension Consulting Alliance as its real estate consultant.
PBGC
WASHINGTON - The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. hired Mellon Equity Associates to manage a $100 million small-cap core equity portfolio.
The PBGC investment portfolio has $15 billion in assets. The funding for the hire came from cash. The firm's contract will end Sept. 30, after which the federal agency can renew the contract up to seven times in the next seven years. Wilshire assisted.
Phi Kappa Phi
BATON ROUGE, La. - Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society hired Mellon Equity Associates to manage a $15 million balanced portfolio for its foundation and life membership fund. Wilmington Trust had managed the portfolio and was included in the search, said John Warren, executive director.
The foundation has $11 million in assets. Mr. Warren would not reveal the size of the life membership fund.
Rock-Tenn Co.
NORCROSS, Ga. - Rock-Tenn Co. hired STI Capital Management to manage $30 million in a small-cap value equity style, said Paul Saari, vice president-finance for the $160 million pension fund. The money came from the fund's large-cap equity growth portfolios, which have been cut to $100 million and are still under management by STI and Montag & Caldwell.
The remaining $30 million is in fixed income, managed by Trustco Capital. Mr. Saari said Rock-Tenn may add an international equity strategy early in 1998.
SEIU Local 144
NEW YORK - The Service Employees International Union, Local 144, hired Putnam Institutional as a U.S. fixed-income manager for its pension funds. Putnam will manage $38 million. The union has $453 million in pension assets, according to the 1998 Nelson's Directory of Plan Sponsors. Quan-Vest Consulting assisted.
Teamsters, Philadelphia
PHILADELPHIA - The $960 million Teamsters Pension Trust of Philadelphia hired Alliance Capital to manage $190 million in core U.S. fixed-income and $60 million in small-cap core equity; Sprucegrove for $60 million in international core equity; Sanford Bernstein for $67 million in U.S. large-cap stocks; and SEI for $320 million to be run in a manager-of-managers approach. SEI also will run the entire $60 million health and welfare fund using a manager-of-managers approach.
The managers replace Shields/Alliance, which had been a balanced manager for both funds.
The changes were made primarily for diversification purposes, said Bill Einhorn, administrator.
Watson Wyatt assisted.
Timber Operators Council
TIGARD, Ore. - The Timber Operators Council hired Alliance Capital to manage $30 million in large-cap growth equity for its $200 million defined benefit plan. Funding will come from a balanced portfolio managed by Loomis Sayles, which will continue to manage the $15 million bond piece of the portfolio. The firm's performance on the equity side had not been good, said Sharon Griffin, retirement manager. A spokesman for Loomis declined to comment. R.V. Kuhns assisted.
Trident Seafoods Corp.
SEATTLE - Trident Seafoods Corp. hired American Century as bundled provider for its $13 million 401(k) plan. American Century will provide record keeping, administration, education and investment services including 11 mutual funds and one non-American Century fund - the Vanguard 500 Index Fund. American Century replaces Kibble & Prentice, which was record keeper and provided several mutual funds.
University of Colorado
BOULDER, Colo. - University of Colorado Foundation committed $3 million to Roser Partnership in a move to complete its 5%allocation to venture capital.
The funding will come from the cash investments of the $330 million fund. The search was completed in-house.
Union of Needletrades
NEW YORK - The Union of Needletrades Industrial and Textile Employees Benefit Funds, with assets of $1 billion, hired Marco Consulting as its new consultant. Theodore Bernstein, director-national retirement funds, declined to comment.
Washington State Investment
OLYMPIA, Wash. - The $40 billion Washington State Investment Board committed $150 million to Joseph Littlejohn & Levy Fund II, a distressed equities fund, and $100 million to the Sprout Capital Fund VIII, a venture capital fund. Funding came from cash reserves. Brinson Partners assisted.
Wisconsin Electric Power
MILWAUKEE - Wisconsin Electric Power Co. hired Callan Associates as its first full-retainer consultant.
Previously, the plan had used consultants strictly on a project basis. Callan will be conducting asset reviews of the company's defined benefit plan, nuclear decommissioning trust, VEBA trust, RABBI trust and 401(k) plan. The funds' assets total $1.6 billion.
Separately, M&I Global Securities Lending was hired as a third-party securities lending agent for the company's pension and nuclear decommissioning trust, which totals $1.2 billion. The search was completed in-house.
