SEARCHES & HIRINGS
Montgomery County Employees' Retirement System, Rockville, Md., in March will interview finalists in its search for a core U.S. bond manager to run a $150 million portfolio, said Julie Dellinger, executive director.
The $1.6 billion fund now has three core U.S. bond managers - J.P. Morgan, Payden & Rygel, and Investment Advisers Inc. - managing a total of $375 million. The new firm selected could replace one of the incumbents.
The finalists include: Bradford & Marzec; BlackRock; Miller Anderson & Sherrerd; PIMCO; and Payden & Rygel. Ms. Dellinger refused to divulge names of other finalists.
Merced County Employees' Retirement System, Merced, Calif., hired Dorn, Helliesen & Cottle as its first consultant to do performance evaluation and an asset allocation study.
Officials of the $275 million fund have yet to establish a timetable for the study. The current mix: 49% U.S. bonds; 45% U.S. stocks; 1% real estate; and 5% cash.
Deutsche Shell AG, Hamburg, Germany, hired Deutsche Bank and Dresdner Bank subsidiaries to manage its newly created 2 billion deutsche mark ($1.1 billion) pension fund, said Jens-Peter Stoehr, treasurer. Also, Chase Manhattan has been selected as global custodian.
Each manager will run half of the assets, which previously were invested in cash for the book-reserve pension fund. Both mandates will be split 60% in European assets and 40% in non-European assets, and divided equally between stocks and bonds.
Deutsche Bank's DEGEF unit will run a purely active portfolio; the non-European part of Dresdner Investment Management's portfolio will be invested passively.
Kimball International, Jasper, Ind., hired Fox Asset Management as a large-cap value manager and Bank of New York as master trustee and custodian for its $325 million defined contribution plan.
Fox replaces Palley-Needelman, which was terminated due to personnel departures. Kenneth Sendelweck, vice president and assistant treasurer at Kimball, would not give the size of the portfolio. Large-cap stocks, which account for 20% of the plan, are split between two firms. Officials at Palley-Needelman could not be reached by press time.
BONY replaces McDonald & Co. Officials wanted to benefit from the record keeping and administrative software BONY uses. McDonald & Co., which will remain consultant to the fund, assisted the manager search.
Oakland (Calif.) Police & Fire Retirement System hired five managers: Rhumbline for $40 million in a Russell 1000 index portfolio; Scudder Stevens & Clark, $31 million in international core equity; Tiffany Capital, $10 million in U.S. midcap stocks; Invista, $28 million international core plus; and Reams, $97.5 million core-plus bonds.
Funding will come from the $794 million fund's pension obligation bond offering.
Watson Wyatt assisted.
New York State Common Retirement Fund, Albany, allocated $75 million to the Olympus Real Estate Fund II, an opportunistic real estate partnership sponsored by Olympus Realty, confirmed New York State Comptroller H. Carl McCall, sole trustee of the $95 billion pension fund. The allocation was funded from cash.
Marley 1986 Pension Scheme, Seven Oaks, England, selected Lloyds Bank Securities Services as custodian for the £170 million ($275 million) fund, replacing Royal Bank of Scotland, said Glynn Griffiths, investment manager.
Royal Bank of Scotland wanted the fund to switch to RBS Trust Bank, created from the former S.G. Warburg custody business the bank acquired last year. But Mr. Griffiths said the bank was unwilling to meet some of the fund's needs, spurring a custody review. An RBS spokesman was unable to comment
