AEU hires Friends Ivory for social mandate
BROMLEY, England - The AEU Pension Scheme hired Friends Ivory & Sime to manage the plan's entire L60 million ($86 million) in assets in a multi-asset portfolio with a socially responsible investment overlay.
Keith Humphrey, head of administration for the plan, said trustees terminated incumbent Schroders in favor of FIS' socially responsible management style. "We have been with Schroders for five years. Obviously, the last few years were disappointing for value managers, but performance was not the overriding issue," he said.
Meconic hires SEI to replace 2 others
EDINBURGH - The Meconic Pension Trustees Ltd. hired SEI to run the pension fund's L18 million ($25.7 million) in assets. SEI replaces Legal & General Investment Management, which ran an indexed mandate, and Glasgow Investment Managers, which managed an active balanced portfolio, said Peter Welch, chairman of Meconic Pension Trustees. He could not detail the allocations to the former managers.
Mr. Welch said the trustees had been happy with each manager's performance but felt SEI would be better able to monitor manager performance and optimize the asset mix.
Doll named global CIO at Merrill Lynch
LONDON - Robert C. Doll was named global chief investment officer and Peter J. Gibbs was named global COO at Merrill Lynch Investment Managers. They replace joint COOs Carol Galley and Stephen Zimmerman, who will retire at the end of the year and at the end of June, respectively. Messrs. Gibbs and Doll will retain their current responsibilities in addition to their global roles. Mr. Doll is co-head of MLIM Americas with Mary E. Taylor, and Mr. Gibbs is head of MLIM Europe, Middle East and Africa.
Dutch plans see less equity exposure
AMSTERDAM - Dutch pension plans' exposure to equities fell for the first time in 10 years at the end of 2000, to an average 41% of total plan assets, according to data released by the WM Co. Dutch plans' average fixed-income exposure increased to 47% by the end of last year.
The average return for Dutch pension plans for 2000 was 2.6%, the lowest in six years, said Robert Riljaarsdam, general manager. Equities produced an average return of -5.2% for the 201 pension plans surveyed, which excluded Stichting Pensioenfonds ABP, Heerlen, and PGGM, Zeist. Poor equity returns were offset by average returns on fixed income and property of 7.8% and 18.9%, respectively.
Soli Prethun named to head Danish fund
COPENHAGEN - Soli Prethun was named head of investments at the 21 billion Danish krone ($2.5 billion) Dansk Ingeniorforenings Pensionskasse, Copenhagen. She replaces Steen Villemoes, who left the plan for Danish chemical, civil, electrical and mechanical engineers in January to join Altius Associates. Ms. Prethun was a deputy head of investments at the plan.
