AP Automotive Systems Inc.
TOLEDO, Ohio -- AP Automotive Systems Inc. hired Thomas White International to manage a $7 million domestic large-cap value portfolio for its $45 million defined benefit plan. The hiring was funded from cash and was made to further diversify the plan, said Kim Franklin, manager of benefits administration.
Wilshire Associates assisted.
Arlington County Supplemental
ARLINGTON, Va. -- The $1.1 billion Arlington County Supplemental Retirement System hired Fidelity Investments to manage $40 million in a real estate investment trust as part of a tactical reallocation, said Bruce O. Kallos, administrator.
The initial funding will come from taking $20 million out of domestic large-cap stock investments, with $10 million apiece from Trinity Investment Management and Credit Suisse. The system will fund the remainder later, Mr. Kallos said.
Blue Cross & Blue Shield
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Alabama will add three options to its $92 million 401(k) plan Oct. 1: Fidelity Advisor Equity Growth Fund; Fidelity Advisor Growth & Income Fund; and Oppenheimer Quest Balanced Fund.
The funds were added to increase the variety in the fund, said Lauri Vollenweider, manager of employee benefits.
The current fund lineup is: AmSouth Stable Principle Fund; AmSouth Balanced Fund; AmSouth Equity Fund; AIM Constellation Fund; American New Perspectives Fund; Federated Max-Cap Fund; and Oppenheimer Quest Opportunity Fund.
University of Chicago
CHICAGO -- The University of Chicago hired Penn Capital to manage $25 million in domestic high-yield bonds for the school's $2.7 billion endowment.
Funding for the endowment's first high-yield allocation came from rebalancing, said Philip Halpern, the school's chief investment officer.
Coca-Cola Bottling
BEDFORD, N.H. -- Coca-Cola Bottling Co. of Northern New England Inc. hired American Express Retirement Services as the bundled provider for its $45 million 401(k) plan.
Coca-Cola Bottling had been with Fleet Street Bank since the plan was formed 14 years ago, said Ann Marie Lacharite, director of human resources. The company also expanded the investment options to eight from six and widened the choices, said Ms. Lacharite.
All of the investment options are offered through American Express or an alliance partner. The two new types of investment options are the American Express Trust Income Fund and an American Express small-cap equity fund. The other options are the AXP Selective fund; AIM Balanced; American Century Income and Growth; AXP New Dimensions; Baron Asset; and Janus Overseas.
In a few years, plan executives intend to investigate adding a brokerage window option, Ms. Lacharite said.
AON Investment Consulting assisted.
Florida Public Utilities Co.
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- Florida Public Utilities Co. hired State Street to replace Chase Manhattan as administrator and trustee for its $33 million defined benefit plan, said Jack Brown, chief financial officer and treasurer.
Mr. Brown, who declined to give the reason for the change, did say performance was not an issue.
FORE Systems Inc.
PITTSBURGH -- FORE Systems Inc. hired American Express Retirement Services to provide bundled services for its 401(k) plan, said Lori Kobayashi, a human resources official.
The company had used Buck Consultants as administrator and the National City Bank of Pennsylvania as trustee, said Ms. Kobayashi, who declined to reveal the size of the 401(k) plan.
The participants will select from an income fund, a balanced fund, a stock fund, a midcap growth fund and an aggressive growth fund, all offered by American Express.
International Paper Co.
PURCHASE, N.Y. -- International Paper Co. hired First Quadrant to run $75 million in a core midcap domestic stock portfolio for its $4.1 billion defined benefit plan, said Robert Hunkeler, vice president and director of investments. About $60 million of the funding is coming from a midcap growth manager and $15 million from a midcap value manager, neither of which was identified.
University System of Maryland
ADELPHI, Md. -- The University System of Maryland Headquarters hired Warburg Pincus to replace Morgan Grenfell as a $20 million domestic fixed-income manager for its $250 million endowment, said Steven Andoseh, endowment fund manager.
The hiring was the result of Morgan Grenfell's contract expiring; Morgan Grenfell did bid again for the contract.
The search was conducted in-house.
Melrose Contributory
MELROSE, Mass. -- The $43 million Melrose Contributory Retirement System hired TA Associates and Intercontinental Real Estate to manage $1.2 million each.
Kevin Leonard, the Segal Advisors consultant who assisted, said the fund added real estate following an asset allocation study. Money for the new allocations will come from cash and paring equity allocations.
Northern Trust Global
LONDON -- Northern Trust Global Investments has reshuffled the asset allocation for its L60 million ($96 million) European equities portfolio and appointed Scottish Widows and SG Asset Management as subadvisers for European ex-U.K. equities, replacing Marathon and CSFB.
Scottish Widows and SG each will manage L24 million, while Odey Asset Management will continue to manage L20 million, said Tony Earnshaw, head of multimanager products at Northern Trust Global. The European equity fund is one of eight that make up the firm's L789 million regional multimanager funds.
Scottish Widows will manage an equity portfolio with both value and growth exposure, while SG will manage a similar large-cap portfolio.
The fund decided to replace value manager Marathon because its approach was relatively inflexible compared with Scottish Widows, said Mr. Earnshaw. "A value-only approach was not flexible enough for the European fund, where you have an economy that is neither a mixture of economies nor a homogeneous whole. There is a need to be more flexible," he said.
Officials at Marathon did not respond by press time.
The fund is replacing CSFB because it prefers using managers only once in its range of funds, and CSFB subsidiary Warburg Pincus is managing a portion of its Japan fund.
Plumbers, Local 14
LODI, N.J. -- Plumbers, Local 14, with $83 million in pension assets, hired Putnam to replace Phoenix Investment Partners as a $30 million domestic large-cap value manager because of performance reasons, said Charles Iversen, administrator.
Michael Haylon, executive vice president for Phoenix Investment Partners, did not return phone calls by press time.
Pension Fund Evaluation assisted.
Santa Barbara County
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. -- The $1.2 billion Santa Barbara County Employees' Retirement System hired Sanford C. Bernstein to run a $140 million domestic large-cap value equity portfolio and Wells Capital Management to manage $100 million in core fixed-income assets, said Bernice James, assistant treasurer for the fund.
The two managers replace Scudder Kemper, which previously ran both portfolios. The firm was let go because of a combination of poor performance and staff turnover, Ms. James said. Scudder Kemper officials did not comment by deadline.
Schlumberger PLC U.K.
LONDON -- Schlumberger PLC U.K. Pension Scheme has restructured its L296 million ($473 million) equity portfolio by adopting a multimanager approach, said Jim Keane, fund secretary.
Baring Asset Management will manage L90 million in specialist U.K. equities. American Express Asset Management will manage non-domestic equities, excluding the U.S.
Schroder Investment Management, which had managed the entire equity portfolio, now will manage low-risk U.K. equities.
The board of the L370 million plan decided to split up the equity portfolio to reduce the risk of being exposed to a single manager, said Mr. Keane. He would not say how much of the portfolio had been awarded to American Express and Schroder. Mr. Keane also noted the U.S. equity portfolio is still under consideration.
Watson Wyatt advised.
Stetson University
DE LAND, Fla. -- Stetson University hired Capital Guardian to run a domestic small-cap to large-cap value equity portfolio and STI to run a domestic fixed-income portfolio for its $120 million endowment, said Judson Stryker, vice president of finance.
Mr. Stryker, who declined to give portfolio sizes or funding source, did say the hirings were additions and were for diversification.
St. Olaf College
NORTHFIELD, Minn. -- St. Olaf College hired Fuller & Thaler as the first midcap growth U.S. equity manager for its endowment, said Mark Gelle, assistant treasurer.
The hire was the result of a recent asset allocation study. The $130 million endowment's new asset mix is 48% domestic equities; 10% international equities; 20% tactical asset allocation; 17% domestic bonds; and 5% real estate. The previous mix was 45% domestic equities; 10% international equities; 3% venture capital; 20% tactical asset allocation; and 22% domestic bonds.
Funding for the $12.5 million allocation will come partly from rebalancing and partly from reducing existing large-cap U.S. equity investments, said Mr. Gelle.
DeMarche Associates assisted.
Teacher Retirement of Texas
AUSTIN, Texas -- The Teacher Retirement System of Texas hired Watson Wyatt Worldwide to start work on an asset allocation study, said Howard Goldman, spokesman for the $81.7 billion fund.
The study will contain a portfolio optimization analysis that evaluates the risk and return characteristics of various asset mixes plus a survey of the asset allocations other public funds use.
The system's allocation as of June 10 was 32.6% fixed income; 65.1% equity; 1% real estate; 0.1% alternative assets; and 1.2% cash equivalents.
TTX Co.
CHICAGO -- TTX Co. hired AMG-Administrative Management Group to replace PricewaterhouseCoopers as record keeper for its $60 million 401(k) plan, said Robert Zimmerman, vice president and chief financial officer.
Fees were the reason for the change. "Basically, PricewaterhouseCoopers was going to start charging us higher fees because of our small size, so we opted to switch record keepers," said Mr. Zimmerman.
TTX also has a $65 million defined benefit plan.
Tulane University
NEW ORLEANS -- Tulane University hired Southeastern Asset Management as a domestic midcap value manager and Pequot Capital Management as an alternative investment manager to diversify its $400 million endowment, said Brent Andrus, treasurer. Mr. Andrus declined to discuss portfolio sizes and funding sources. Cambridge Associates assisted.
Ventura County Employee
VENTURA, Calif. -- The $2.1 billion Ventura County Employee Retirement Association hired Barclays Global Investors to run $200 million in a Russell 1000 index fund, said Van Perris, administrator.
Funding for the BGI portfolio will come from terminating Trinity Investment Management as a domestic large-cap value manager, partly because of poor performance, said Mr. Perris.
Blake Gall, president and chief investment officer for Trinity, didn't return calls for comment by press time.
The fund also narrowed a search for one global bond manager and one domestic small-cap growth manager to two finalists each, Mr. Perris said. Finalists will be interviewed at the Oct. 4 board meeting, after which a decision is expected, he noted.
Asset Strategy is assisting.
Vulcan Materials
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- Vulcan Materials Co. hired Mellon Capital Management to run $10 million in domestic bonds, and State Street Global Advisors, an existing S&P 500 index manager, to run a $3 million active EAFE portfolio for the $475 million defined benefit plan, said J. Wayne Houston, investment officer.
The new managers will replace terminated domestic bond and EAFE manager Barclays Global Investors, Mr. Houston said. Performance was not an issue, he added.
Wilshire assisted.
