Alabama Trust Fund
MONTGOMERY - The Alabama Trust Fund hired five domestic fixed-income managers, moving to a multimanager approach from a sole manager for the $1.2 billion fund.
Conseco Capital Management and Salomon Smith Barney Capital Management each will manage 27% of the fund; South Trust Asset Management and Sterne Agee, 21% each; and AmSouth Bank, 4%. Funding will come from terminating Wellington Management.
Amway Corp.
ADA, Mich. - Amway Corp. has expanded to five new mutual funds and has selected money managers to subadvise them. The firm had offered a single mutual fund, said Allan Engel, vice president of the new Activa Mutual Funds.
The mutual funds were launched Sept. 1 and will be offered by Amway subsidiary Activa Asset Management to Amway's 1 million independent business owners through Amway's newly launched Web business, Quixtar.
The mutual funds are: the existing Amway mutual fund, which will be renamed the Activa value equity fund; a new growth equity fund subadvised by State Street Research & Management; an international equity fund subadvised by Nicholas-Applegate; a new money market fund subadvised by J.P. Morgan/American Century Retirement Plan Services; and a new international bond fund subadvised by Van Kampen, Mr. Engel said.
The existing mutual fund has about $200 million in assets, he said.
The BISYS Group was hired to perform fund accounting, Web-related services and to be the transfer agent, Mr. Engel said.
Atmos Energy Corp.
DALLAS - Atmos Energy Corp. hired Agincourt Capital Management as a domestic fixed-income manager in order to consolidate its $90 million bond portfolio. Agincourt will manage the entire portfolio.
Funding comes from terminating J.P. Morgan and Sovran Capital Management, which each managed $41 million in domestic bonds; and another $8 million came from an Allegis REIT portfolio.
LCG, the fund's consultant, recommended consolidation to save on fees and to stay with the same style of fixed-income management, said Steve Harmon, director of compensation and benefits.
Additionally, trustees for the $265 million fund hired TT International to manage a $20 million international equity portfolio previously managed by Global Asset Management, which was terminated because of the departure of one of its portfolio managers.
Federal Retirement Thrift
WASHINGTON - Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board, with $85 billion in defined contribution assets, has picked Barclays Global Investors to manage a new small-cap stock index investment fund that will track the Wilshire 4500 stock index. The S Fund will be available to participants in May.
Hartford Municipal Employees
HARTFORD, Conn. - City of Hartford Municipal Employees' Retirement Fund hired Delaware Investment Advisers to manage $40 million in global bonds, said Kathleen Palm, city treasurer and secretary of the pension commission for the $975 million fund.
Partial funding came from terminating Davis Hamilton Jackson, which ran a $37 million intermediate-duration bond fund, and the remainder came from rebalancing U.S. equities.
The shift to global fixed income from intermediate-duration bonds was made, she said, because "(we have) always known we wanted to get into foreign bonds, based on asset allocation studies." Also, the fund's cash flow needs have increased since Davis Hamilton Jackson was hired in 1994.
Kentucky Public Employees
FRANKFORT, Ky. - Public Employees' Deferred Compensation System of Kentucky hired William M. Mercer as a stable-value investment consultant, according to Robert Brown, executive director for the $825 million fund.
Merck & Co. Inc.
WHITEHOUSE STATION, N.J. - Merck & Co. Inc. has selected Financial Engines, an independent investment adviser for defined contribution plan participants, to provide advice to participants in its $2.7 billion 401(k) plan.
Merck executives hired Financial Engines on Sept. 20 after a lengthy review process that included three sets of trials, said Wayne Folkart, manager, executive benefits, who heads administration of Merck's 401(k) plan.
"Our approach from the ground up was quite rigorous," Mr. Folkart said. "The primary driver is any time there is a tool we think can help employees or is important to employees, we want to look at it."
New Hampshire Retirement
CONCORD, N.H. - New Hampshire Retirement System hired Hutchens Investment Management to run a $75 million large-cap U.S. value portfolio, said J.P. Singh, director of finance for the $4.2 billion fund.
The account will be funded by a rebalancing of the fund's portfolio, which was overweighted to large-cap growth and underweighted to large-cap value, said Mr. Singh.
Hutchens is the retirement system's first New Hampshire-based money manager, although that was not the focus of the search, said Mr. Singh.
Omnicom Group Inc.
NEW YORK - Omnicom Group Inc. hired William M. Mercer Consulting to help it decide whether to merge 43 defined contribution plans run by some of its numerous subsidiaries, said Leslie Chiocco, director of retirement benefits at Omnicom.
The 43 plans hold a total of $250 million in defined contribution assets, she said. Omnicom is a holding company that owns several advertising and marketing companies, which are decentralized. The largest subsidiary is DDB Worldwide, which has a $50 million defined contribution plan.
In addition, Omnicom sponsors a defined contribution profit-sharing plan with $670 million in assets. Some employees participate in both plans.
Omnicom considered merging plans seven years ago when there were only eight and three years ago when there were 23, but the company had never hired a consultant to help it review all the plans, Ms. Chiocco said.
If the firm decides to merge the plans and issue RFPs for managers, Mercer will do the screening, she said.
Openbaar Vervoer
UTRECHT, Netherlands - Stichting Pensioenfonds Openbaar Vervoer plans an asset allocation study, after handing the management of its 3 billion dutch guilders ($1.4 billion) in assets to money manager SPF Beheer. Local insurer Centraal Beheer previously reinsured the plan's liabilities, said Dick van Setten, secretary to the SPOV plan's board of trustees.
The money manager will administer the plan for Dutch bus drivers and manage the assets beginning in January.
Plumbers and Steamfitters
SYRACUSE, N.Y. - Plumbers and Steamfitters Local 267 Pension Fund hired Janus to manage $20 million in growth equity for its $70 million defined benefit plan.
Last year, the fund terminated Clover Capital as a value equity manager, parking those assets with value manager Manning & Napier; funding for the Janus portfolio will come from Manning & Napier.
Virginia Tech Foundation
BLACKSBURG, Va. - Virginia Tech Foundation trustees replaced Sovran Capital with Agincourt Capital Management for a $35 million intermediate domestic bond portfolio. Management will be a change in name only because the portfolio managers are the group that left Sovran to form Agincourt last month, said John Cusimano, director of investments and debt management at the $500 million fund. The group's departure and a reduction in fees prompted the switch, he said.
