Aurora City
AURORA CITY, Colo. - The $200 million Aurora City General Employees' Retirement System hired Wellington Management to run $28 million in active domestic large-cap value equities. Wellington replaces Ark Asset Management, which was terminated because of performance concerns, said Thomas Cornell, pension plan administrator.
Joe Scandlin, managing director-director of sales at Ark, did not return calls by press time.
Caterpillar (U.K.)
PETERBOROUGH, England - The Caterpillar (U.K.) Pension Plan hired William M. Mercer as actuary, investment consultant and administrator, said Peter Thompson, the partner at Mercer who works with the L600 million ($880 million) plan. The Caterpillar plan was formed Oct. 1 by the merger of Caterpillar (U.K.) Ltd. Pension and Life Assurance Plan with eight other Caterpillar plans in Great Britain. Mercer replaces Towers Perrin, consultant to the plans before they were merged.
CH2M Hill
DENVER - CH2M Hill Inc. hired Putnam to manage $14.5 million in international core equities for its $75 million retirement plan, a new allocation, said Rudd Little, director of benefits planning. Funding comes from another manager, which Mr. Little declined to identify. The move was made for diversification, he said. Watson Wyatt assisted.
CIGNA Retirement
HARTFORD, Conn. - CIGNA Retirement & Investment Services hired institutional subadvisers to run six new actively managed commingled accounts in its Charter Fund family: Dresdner RCM for large-cap growth equities and balanced-growth; Loomis Sayles, small-cap growth equities; Wentworth, Hauser, Violich, small-cap blend equities; and Sterling Capital Management and TCW, small-cap value equities.
Circle Company Associates
BOSTON - Circle Company Associates Inc. hired online service provider Emplanet to run its $150,000 401(k) plan, replacing Paychex, which had handled the plan, said David Smith, senior accounting manager. Circle replaced the eight mutual funds offered by Paychex with the 30 funds offered by Emplanet.
Circle executives are adding automatic enrollment in mid-March, Mr. Smith said. The default deferral rate will be 3%; the default fund is Emplanet's stable-value fund, Mr. Smith said. At some point, Circle also expects to add a company match, he added.
Circle switched providers to gain access to a wider variety of mutual funds and boost its participation rate, Mr. Smith said. All 230 employees are eligible; participation has increased to 142 employees, from 52 in January. The average deferral rate is 8%, he said.
Coral Gables Retirement
CORAL GABLES, Fla. - The $200 million Coral Gables Retirement System hired Nicholas-Applegate Capital Management to run $30 million in active domestic large-cap core equities, said Adolfo Sansores, assistant finance director.
Funding comes from reducing two active large-cap domestic equity portfolios: the system will take $15 million from INVESCO Capital Management's value portfolio and $15 million from Sound Capital's growth portfolio, leaving each $45 million, Mr. Sansores said.
The move was made for diversification, he said.
CTS Corp.
ELKHART, Ind. - CTS Corp. hired Northern Trust Retirement Consulting as administrator to its six pension plans, which have a total of $375 million in assets. Administration was handled in-house. The firm wanted to provide participants with access to Northern Trust's web-based financial planning software, said Vernon Pitcher, CTS benefits manager.
Delaware Public Employees
DOVER, Del.- The $5.5 billion Delaware Public Employees' Retirement System committed $25 million to a private equity technology fund being started by Alliance Technology Ventures. The retirement system already has about $100 million in four other ATV funds, said Dale Stratton, pension board chairwoman.
Teddy & Arthur Edelman Ltd.
NEW MILFORD, Conn. - Teddy & Arthur Edelman Ltd. hired CitiStreet as bundled provider for its 401(k) plan, which has less than $10 million, said Kathleen Phillips, Edelman's personnel manager. Of Edelman's 48 employees, 18 are eligible and participate in the plan, Ms. Phillips said. The company does not yet offer a matching contribution, but there is a separate profit-sharing plan. Ms. Phillips declined to give the assets in either the 401(k) or the profit-sharing plan.
El Paso County
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - The $170 million El Paso County Retirement System hired State Street Research to run $25 million in active domestic small-cap core equities. Funding comes from terminating a Russell 2000 index fund managed by State Street Global Advisors. The retirement plan is moving toward a more active approach, said David Klemmer, plan administrator.
Greenfield Town Retirement
GREENFIELD, Mass. - The $34.4 million Greenfield Town Retirement System hired Dreyfus as its first domestic small-cap equities manager to run run a $3.2 million active portfolio, said Marilyn A. Matysiewicz, analyst for the system. The system also hired UBS Asset Management to run $1.6 million in a pooled real estate portfolio. Funding comes from reducing a domestic equity portfolio run by Harbor Capital, which still manages $12.6 million for the fund. Segal Advisors assisted.
BOSTON - Harvard Management Co., which manages Harvard University's $19.2 billion endowment, hired Bank of New York as global custodian, replacing Citibank, said Steve McSweeney, chief operating officer at Harvard. Mr. McSweeney said Harvard was impressed with BNY's technology platform capabilities and the strength of its network management organization.
Harvard uses State Street as custodian for its domestic assets, Euroclear for European assets and Brown Brothers Harriman for its emerging-markets assets.
Metrocall
ALEXANDRIA, Va. - Metrocall Inc. hired First Union as semibundled provider for its $38 million 401(k) plan, replacing PNC Advisors, said Jay B. Young, director of benefits and risk management. Metrocall made the change because it wanted more services, better education and lower pricing, Mr. Young said. The plan now has 17 options.
Metrocall kept four Fidelity funds: Overseas, Growth Opportunity, Equity Income, and Equity Growth. It also kept three funds that were added in 2000: Janus Twenty, Janus Fund and Federated Max Cap Fund. The company replaced four of PNC's BlackRock funds with First Union's Evergreen Money Market, Evergreen Foundation, Evergreen Select Core Bond and Evergreen Strategic Growth funds. Metrocall also added New York Davis Venture, Putnam Emerging Growth, Dreyfus Mid Cap, Warburg Pincus Capital Appreciation, Janus Worldwide and Janus Retirement Advisors Growth.
Metrocall decided against adding a self-directed brokerage account, but company executives may add investment advice, he said.
National Engineering
CLEVELAND - National Engineering and Contracting Co. hired Key Asset Management as bundled provider for its $5 million 401(k) plan, replacing Nationwide, said Thomas M. McCafferty, National Engineering vice president. Key Asset will offer 12 investment options and a self-directed brokerage window. Nationwide offered eight options. Deloitte & Touche was record keeper; administration and trustee duties were handled in house, Mr. McCafferty said.
He said National Engineering chose Key's PRISM 401(k) plan because it has the most up-to-date plan on the market as far as options and Internet access.
Nevada Public Employees
CARSON CITY, Nev. - The $13.8 billion Nevada Public Employees' Retirement System hired Putnam to manage $350 million in active international large-cap core equities. Funding will come from cash flow and will not affect any other international managers, said Laura Wallace, chief investment officer. The move was made to diversify management in that sector, she said.
Newport News Shipbuilding
NEWPORT NEWS, Va. - Newport News Shipbuilding Inc. added three investment options to its $790 million 401(k) plan: State Street Aurora and International Equity funds, and the Van Kampen Growth and Income fund, said Keith Harris, who administers the plan at Merrill Lynch. The plan now has 11 investment options.
Ohio Police & Fire
COLUMBUS, Ohio - The $9.2 billion Ohio Police & Fire Pension Fund hired Fidelity Management Trust to run an active domestic small-cap to midcap core equity portfolio.
The size of the Fidelity portfolio was not known, but the plan had considered placing between $200 million and $300 million when it conducted the search in 2000; funding comes from terminated manager Nicholas-Applegate, which handled $380 million in the same style.
Wilshire assisted.
OppenheimerFunds
NEW YORK - OppenheimerFunds hired subadvisers for six new mutual funds on its recently introduced Oppenheimer Select Managers platform.
Salomon Brothers will subadvise the OSM-Salomon Brothers Capital fund; Mercury Advisors, OSM-Mercury Advisors Focus Growth, and OSM-Mercury Advisors S&P 500 index; Jennison Associates, OSM-Jennison Growth; Prudential Investment subsidiary QM for equity and Prudential Global Asset for fixed income in the OSM-QM Active Balanced fund; and Villanova Capital, OSM-Gartmore Millennium Growth.
South Carolina Retirement
COLUMBIA, S.C. - The $19 billion South Carolina Retirement System hired Dresdner RCM Global Investors to manage active domestic large-cap growth equities; the allocation hasn't been decided. The retirement system, which made its first investment in equities less than two years ago, is still "ramping up our equity allocation" to 40% of total assets, said Michael Sponhour, spokesman. Funding will come from a combination of employer contributions and cash. William M. Mercer assisted.
RICHMOND, Va. - The Virginia Retirement System will make $350 million in additional alternative investments. The $39.5 billion system will place $50 million in U.S. Venture Partners VIII; $75 million in Atlas Ventures VI; $50 million in Austin Ventures VIII; $100 million in Summit Ventures VI; and $75 million in Madison Dearborn Capital Partners IV. Funding will come from cash.
Trustees also authorized interest rate and other swaps with authorized counterparties.