Employees' and Officers' Annuity and Benefit Fund of Cook County, Chicago, might increase its global equity allocation later this year and will increase its allocation to its balanced indexed mandate, said John E. Fitzgerald, executive director.
The $4.2 billion fund already has $35 million in global equity with Brinson Partners, invested under a 10% ``basket clause'' that allows the fund to invest in assets otherwise not permitted. But a change in state law now allows the fund to invest up to 10% of its assets in foreign equities. No decision has been made on how much will be added or whether the allocation will go to Brinson Partners.
Later this month, an additional $250 million will go to balanced index manager Northern Trust Quantitative. Funding will come from new cash and existing managers. The firm now handles $390 million.
Landmark Realty came up short in its bid to replace Heitman Financial as the manager of the JMB Group Trust III, said Landmark President Richard Maine.
Landmark, a secondary buyer of partnership interest, proposed last month that the investors in the $438 million fund replace Heitman with The RREEF Funds because of a perceived failure by Heitman to sell properties. Consent of two-thirds of the investors was required to replace Heitman. A tender offer to buy a minimum of $40 million of JMB Group Trust III units also failed, Mr. Maine said. He declined to quantify the margin of failure.
``We are really pleased that the clients stood behind us on this,'' said Mary Ludgin, COO of Heitman Capital Management.
Apollo Real Estate Investment Fund III committed $58 million to Western Realty Development, which will develop real estate in Moscow, said a spokesman for Brooke Group, one of the partners. Western Realty is a joint venture between Brooke Group and New Valley Corp. The Apollo fund is offered by Apollo Management.
Investors in the Apollo fund include: The 1199 Healthcare Employees Pension Fund; General Electric Co. pension fund; New York Common Retirement Fund; The Pew Charitable Trusts; The Kresge Foundation; and the endowments for the University of Pennsylvania, University of Pittsburgh, Illinois State University and Dartmouth College.
SEARCHES & HIRINGS
California Public Employees' Retirement System, Sacramento, is expected to issue an RFP tomorrow for managers of nonregional retail malls.
The $128 billion pension fund has $250 million invested so far in such malls. The amount of additional assets to be invested in the retail sector by CalPERS will depend on the size of the CalPERS fund, use of leverage and proceeds from retail property sales, according to fund staff members.
Bradlees Inc., Braintree, Mass., hired MFS Institutional Advisors to manage about $10 million in large-cap growth stocks for its $68 million defined benefit plan, said Bradlees Treasurer Gary Jones. New England Pension Consultants assisted.
The Carroll Co., Dallas, added the American Century Real Estate Fund as an investment choice in its $2.5 million 401(k) plan. Peter Laurea, controller, said the real estate fund, which invests primarily in REITs, brings the total investment offerings to 15 at Carroll. He said the fund was added to provide participants with additional diversification and the potential for long-term returns from real estate.
SunAmerica Asset Management, New York, hired Bankers Trust to replace Strong Capital Management as one of three subadvisers of its $74.3 million International Equity Portfolio mutual fund in its Style Select Series. Bankers Trust will use its active growth at a reasonable price strategy.
Strong was terminated because of performance, said Steve Schoepke, SunAmerica vice president of research and product development. Jody Lowe, a Strong spokeswoman, said the company was sorry SunAmerica was ``leaving us for international equity management, but we continue to enjoy a good relationship and Strong continues to manage other accounts for SunAmerica.''
