TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - The Florida Department of Insurance and Treasury hired eight active domestic fixed-income managers, each to run $50 million, said Ken Gerzina, finance administrator. The $7.4 billion system hired Sawgrass Asset, Banc One, Delaware Investments, Fixed Income Discount Advisory, Pacific Income Advisors, Strong Capital and Weiss Peck & Greer for core portfolios; Lebenthal Asset Management was hired to manage taxable municipal bonds.
Partial funding came from fixed-income managers Lincoln Capital Management, Eaton Vance and Utendahl, which ran a total of $800 million and were terminated for performance, said Mr. Gerzina. The remaining assets were given to existing managers Loomis Sayles, which received an additional $200 million; BlackRock, $100 million; and Western Asset Management, Smith Breeden, U.S. Bancorp and Independence Fixed Income, $25 million each.
Alexander Knowles, Lincoln marketing director, and Meg Pier, Eaton Vance spokeswoman, did not return calls seeking comment by press time. Officials at Utendahl could not be reached for comment.