SEARCHES & HIRINGS
City of Aurora (Colo.) General Employees' Retirement Plan is conducting a search for a consultant to conduct an asset/liability study, performance measurement and manager searches. RFPs are due April 3.
Current consultant DeMarche will be included in the $160 million fund's search. The relationship hasn't been re-examined in 10 years, said Thomas Connell, plan administrator. A short list of firms is expected in late April.
New York State Common Retirement Fund, Albany, committed to two rivate equity limited partnerships, said New York State Comptroller H. Carl McCall, sole trustee of the $96 billion fund.
Sprout Capital VIII, a venture capital fund sponsored by Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, received a $50 million commitment; Kelso Investment Associates VI, a buyout fund, received a $175 million commitment.
Also, Schroders, an existing emerging markets equity manager, received an additional $50 million; it managed a $243.6 million portfolio previously. The commitments and allocations are funded from cash.
Laclede Gas Co., St. Louis, hired Mercantile Bank as custodian for its $300 million defined benefit plan and American Express as bundled provider for its $100 million 401(k) plan. Both replace Boatmen's Bank, which had left the business. The DC plan, which was bundled with Boatmen's, will have the same types of choices plus a new small-cap option that brings the number of options to five. The searches were done in-house.
MDU REsources Group Inc., Bismarck, N.D., hired New York Life Benefit Services as record keeper and New York Life Trust as trustee for its $165 million 401(k) fund. They replace Norwest Bank, which had provided both services.
MDU also added three New York Life funds - the MainStay Institutional Index Equity Fund, MainStay Institutional Index Bond Fund, and the New York Life Anchor Account stable-value fund - and the Templeton Foreign Fund Class I.
The fund dropped two Vanguard funds, an S&P 500 index and total bond market index. It also dropped Capital Guardian's American Funds' EuroPacific Group Fund and a Norwest short-term fund. It retained a Dodge & Cox balance fund and a Baron small-cap fund.
Consulting Group assisted.
Baton Rouge & Parish of East Baton Rouge Retirement System, Louisiana, hired Trinity Investment Management as a midcap value equity manager to run an $80 million portfolio.
The money will come from the termination of midcap equity manager Investment Advisers Inc. and cash reserves. IAI, which managed $47 million, was terminated for performance reasons, said Jeffrey Yates, retirement administrator for the $680 million fund. IAI officials did not return phone calls by press time. Summit Strategies assisted.
Little Rock (Ark.) City Police Pension and Relief Fund hired Sector Capital Management, said Harold Boldt, treasurer and director-finance and trustee. The $48 million pension fund allocated $10 million to Sector to run a manager-of-manager's equity fund. Funding came from a reallocation.
Miami Beach (Fla.) General Employees Retirement System hired Mellon Trust as custodian, pending finalization of the contract, said Margaret Arculeo, pension administrator.
Mellon will be the custodian for all of the $232.5 million fund's portfolios, except for a $60 million RhumbLine Index Fund portfolio that has State Street as custodian. Mellon replaces Fiduciary Trust. Dorn, Helliesen & Cottle assisted.
Sharp HealthCare, San Diego, Calif., hired Frank Russell to provide investment management services for its $35 million 403(b) plan and $65 million defined benefit plan. Sharp will use six of Russell's multi-manager funds in a diversified range of investment options and asset classes.
Sharp officials would not elaborate on the previous investment providers for the two funds
